Whilst Lord Cumber, who never communicated a syllable touching the duel with Hartley to his brother, was engaged in that mortal conflict, as it unhappily turned out to be, the Honorable Richard Topertoe was engaged in a far different occupation.  On that same morning, in Castle Cumber church, he had the pleasure of giving away the hand of Mary M’Loughlin to her lover, Harman, and it was on their return from her father’s house, after having witnessed their subsequent marriage by Father Roche, that he met his brother’s carriage containing his dead body.  Richard Topertoe possessed a mind above an empty title, and, perhaps, there lived not a man who more sincerely deplored the event which made him Lord Cumber, and put him in possession of a property which he did not require.

Our chronicles draw to a close.  The contemplated interview between Mrs. Lenehan, her brother, and Solomon, never in fact took place.  Solomon fell very seasonably into ill health, and could be seen by nobody, except his physician, who was nearly as religious as himself, and besides, a member of his own congregation.  In the trust, however, which the widow placed in Solomon, she was, to use his own language, abundantly justified, as the event proved.  Honest Solomon defrauded her out of the money, and had the satisfaction of reflecting that he reduced her and her family to beggary.  Breach of trust it appears is a very slight thing in the eye of the law, and Solomon, encouraged by this consideration, ruined the unfortunate widow and her orphans.  This act of gross, unprincipled robbery was, however, not unpunished.  In about a month after he had perpetrated it, the following scene occurred in the Court of King’s Bench, in presence of many who will have little difficulty in bringing it to their recollection.  A thin, pale-faced man, far gone apparently in serious illness, supported on each side by a religious friend who had not given him up, one of them by the way was a Scotchman, and a far greater knave and hypocrite than himself—­approached the table, and requested permission to address the Court, previous to the exercise of its jurisdiction in striking him off the Roll of Attornies.  This permission was granted, and Solomon, for it was he, spoke briefly as follows:—­

“My Lord, you see before you a frail sinner, who will soon appear before a greater and more awful tribunal than yours.  I am not here, my Lord, to defend an act to which I was prompted by—­may I be permitted to say so—­by my very virtues.  Some men, my Lord, we ruined by excellent qualities, and some by those which are the reverse.  As touching mine, my Lord, and the principles upon which—­but an explanation on this subject would not become me.  Oh, no, my Lord; but your lordship sees these tears; your lordship sees this weak, feeble, and emaciated frame.  You perceive, in fact, my Lord, that I am scarcely a subject for the severity of this or any other court.  In the meantime, may I be prepared