I now began to get seriously alarmed lest my presentiment should be realized, and instead of the shadow, I should in the morning find myself confronted with the substance of death, more especially as in a short time he subsided into silence, nor was it till the coach pulled up for change of horses, that from the reflection of the light from the opposite wall, I saw that he was yet in the land of the living, and as little disposed to sleep as he had been to converse.

When day began to dawn, I cast a scrutinizing glance over at my suffering fellow-traveller, in whom I began to take a singular interest, his handsome, but melancholy and careworn features exhibiting such resignation to whatever malady it was that afflicted him; he appeared not to have slept the whole night, but to be now free from all pain.

I shortly succeeded in engaging him in conversation, when he displayed such a flow of language and variety of information, at times tinctured with such a depth of pathos and feeling, and at others, enlivened by such a vein of humour, both which seemed to alternate in his discourse, caused possibly by the pressure and remission of some internal pang, whether mental or bodily, that I determined, be his destination where it might, I would see him to the place of it; and with this view I expressed a hope that we should be companions to the end of our journey.

He then informed me that Port-na-Currig was the place it was his utmost desire to reach, and where it was his anxious wish that his last remains should be deposited. "But, sir," continued he, "man may propose, 'tis God alone who disposes; so uncertain is my tenure of life, that I can never entertain a hope of seeing the close of the day I enter on; I have a disease of the heart, which every day and hour is making rapid advances; indeed, since I got into this carriage I have had such unmistakeable proofs of its progress, that I thought I should have 'shuffled off this mortal coil' before the light of another day would have shined on it; but it has pleased the Lord to abate the violence of the attack, and give me another short respite for better preparation."

When I informed him that our place of destination was the same, a gleam of pleasure passed over his face; and when I farther told him my name, he seized me by the hand, saying that my father was one of his oldest friends, having been class fellows at school and college; when informed of his death, a gloom again came over him. "I have been, sir," said he, "many years out of this kingdom from circumstances that unhappily connected me with some of the leaders of the Rebellion, and though perfectly free from any participation in that unhappy movement, I deemed it advisable to throw

up a lucrative source of revenue I enjoyed in the practice of my profession as a physician in Dublin, and retire to France; and though entitled to the full privileges of the amnesty to all engaged in that affair, yet I have deemed it also advisable to retire from public life, and reside for the uncertain residue of my life in company with another old friend of mine, the Reverend Charles O'Malley, the rector."

"Alas, sir," said I, "you are doomed to another disappointment; Mr. O'Malley died above a year ago.'

"Then, indeed," said he, shedding a tear, “I am left destitute; his son, I know, married the sister of Sir Roderic O'Conor, and by that marriage came in for his large estates, but I should suppose he is not residing at his native place; the main object of my journeying there was to entrust my old friend with the execution of my will, and the disposition of my property, according to the provisions of it."

We continued our journey subsequently to this conversation, after a short stoppage for breakfast, till we came within a few miles of the town where we were to dine; I had already, seeing my poor companion so exhausted, proposed our sleeping there, and taking on a chaise the next morning; when, in the midst of an animated conversation, his tongue began to falter and his words to die away in a whisper, while

his face exhibited the workings of some inward spasmodic attack; he would have fallen forward had I not upheld him; I got him out at the hotel, and helped him into a comfortable bed, having procured the assistance of an eminent physician of the neighbourhood, who, on inspection, pronounced his disease to be aneurism of the heart, and that death, whenever it came, would be instantaneous: he continued, however, during the night in an undisturbed doze.

In the morning, while at breakfast, the landlady informed me that the gentleman was better, and earnestly desired to see me: on approaching his bed, I perceived, from the great alteration in his features, that the last sad change was not far off.

"I have sent for you," said he, with many exertions, his speech being at times interrupted by long intervals, "to devolve on you the office I intended for my departed friend. It is unnecessary for me to divulge my real name to you, it has long been buried from the world, but when I am gone you will find it written on a slip of paper enclosed in my will, which is in my assumed one. Send for a legal person that I may annex a codicil, appointing you my sole executor and residuary legatee.

"I have, also," continued he, "some unpublished manuscripts here (taking a parcel from under his pillow) which I wish you to publish

under my feigned name of 'Peter Paradox,' under which I have heretofore, before going abroad, been well known to the literary world."

"Bless me," cried I, "are you the person who, under that name, published those satires on the Government of that day, which I have heard my father speak of, and which resembled those of Junius so much, not only in their style, but in the mystery of authorship attached to them."

"The same," said he; "and I charge you, as a dying man, to let the same mystery continue to overhang them after my death; never let the name of the author be known to the world.

"There is one manuscript," continued he, "which it is not my wish should be published till sixty years from the time the incidents mentioned in it are laid, shall have passed, both because it would compromise many who, though under fictitious names, are mentioned in it, and possibly hurt their feelings, as because an earlier publication might give some indication of the authorship: it is possible, as you are a young man, you may live to that period; if not, let the office devolve on your executors."

That night he passed away. I had his remains conveyed on to the place he intended, if living, to reach, and had the will there opened in the presence of the clergyman and magistrates of the town; no name whatever appeared enclosed within it; I searched every book, paper,