see at a glance that it is one of those cases in which a compromise would be the most judicious solution of difficulties. I am well used to this kind of thing, Mr. Dockwrath." "It would not do, Sir," said Mr. Dockwrath, after some further slight period of consideration. "It wouldn't do. Round and Crook have all the dates, and so has Mason too. And the original of that partnership deed is forthcoming; and they know what witnesses to depend on. No, Sir; I've begun this on public grounds, and I mean to carry it on. I am in a manner bound to do so as the representative of the attorney of the late Sir Joseph Mason; and by Heavens, Mr. Cooke, I'll do my duty!" "I dare say you're right," said Mr. Crabwitz, mixing a quarter of a glass more brandy-and water. "I know I'm right, Sir," said Dockwrath. "And when a man knows he's right, he has a deal of inward satisfaction in the feeling." After that Mr. Crabwitz was aware that he could be of no use at Hamworth, but he staid out his week in order to avoid suspicion. On the following day Mr. Dockwrath did proceed to Bedford Row, determined to carry out his original plan, and armed with that inward satisfaction to which he had alluded. He dressed himself in his best, and endeavored as far as was in his power to look as though he were equal to the Messrs. Round. Old Crook | he had seen once, and him he already despised. He had endeavored to obtain a private interview with Mrs. Bolster before she could be seen by Matthew Round; but in this he had not succeeded. Mrs. Bolster was a prudent woman; and, acting doubtless under advice, had written to him, saying that she had been summoned to the office of Messrs. Round and Crook, and would there declare all that she knew about the inatter. At the same time she returned to him a money order which he had sent to her. Punctually at twelve he was in Bedford Row, and there he saw a respectable-looking female sitting at the fire in the inner part of the outer office. This was Bridget Bolster, but he would by no means have recognized her. Bridget had risen in the world, and was now head chambermaid at a large hotel in the west of England. In that capacity she had laid aside whatever diffidence may have afflicted her earlier years, and was now able to speak out her mind before any judge or jury in the land. Indeed she had never been much afflicted by such diffidence, and had spoken out her evidence on that former occasion, now twenty years since, very plainly. But as she now explained to the head clerk, she had at that time been only a poor ignorant slip of a girl, with no more than eight pounds a year wages. Dockwrath bowed to the head clerk, and passed on to Mat Round's private room. "Mr. Matthew is inside, I suppose," said he, and hardly waiting for permission he knocked at the door, and then entered. There he saw Mr. Matthew Round, sitting in his comfortable arm chair, and opposite to him sat Mr. Mason of Groby Park. Mr. Mason got up and shook hands with the Hamworth attorney, but Round junior made his greeting without rising, and merely motioned his visitor to a chair. "Mrs. Mason and the young ladies are quite well, I hope ?" said Mr. Dockwrath, with a smile. "Quite well, I thank you," said the county magistrate. "This matter has progressed since I last had the pleasure of seeing them. You begin to think I was right; eh, Mr. Mason?" "Don't let us triumph till we are out of the wood!" said Mr. Round. "It is a deal easier to spend money in such an affair as this than it is to make money by it. However we shall hear to-day more about it." "I do not know about making money," said Mr. Mason, very solemnly. "But that I have been robbed by that woman out of my just rights in that estate for the last twenty years—that I may say I do know." "Quite true, Mr. Mason; quite true," said Mr. Dockwrath, with considerable energy. "And whether I make money or whether I lose money, I intend to proceed in this matter. It is dreadful to think that, in this free and enlightened country, so abject an offender should have been able to hold her head up so long without punishment and without disgrace." "That is exactly what I feel," said Dockwrath. "The very stones and trees of Hamworth cry out against her." "Gentlemen," said Mr. Round, "we have first to see whether there has been any injustice or not. If you will allow me I will explain to you what I now propose to do." "Proceed, Sir," said Mr. Mason, who was by no means satisfied with his young attorney. "Bridget Bolster is now in the next room, and as far as I can understand the case at present, she would be the witness on whom your case, Mr. Mason, would most depend. The man Kenneby I have not yet seen; but from what I understand he is less likely to prove a willing witness than Mrs. Bolster." "I can not go along with you there, Mr. Round," said Dockwrath. "Excuse me, Sir, but I am only stating my opinion. If I should find that this woman is unable to say that she did not sign two separate documents on that day—that is, to say so with a positive and point-blank assurance, I shall recommend you, as my client, to drop the prosecution." "I will never drop it," said Mr. Mason. "You will do as you please," continued Round; "I can only say what under such circumstances will be the advice given to you by this firm. I have talked the matter over very carefully with my father and with our other partner, and we shall not think well of going on with it unless I shall now find that your view is strongly substantiated by this woman." Then outspoke Mr. Dockwrath, "Under these circumstances, Mr. Mason, if I were you, I should withdraw from the house at once. I certainly would not have my case blown upon." "Mr. Mason, Sir, will do as he pleases about that. As long as the business with which he honors us is straightforward, we will do it for him, as for an old client, although it is not exactly in our own line. But we can only do it in accordance with our own judgment. I will proceed to explain what I now propose to do. The woman Bolster is in the next room, and I, with the assistance of my head clerk, will take down the headings of what evidence she can give." "In our presence, Sir," said Mr. Dockwrath; "or if Mr. Mason should decline, at any rate in mine." "By no means, Mr. Dockwrath," said Round. "I think Mr. Dockwrath should hear her story," said Mr. Mason. "He certainly will not do so in this house or in conjunction with me. In what capacity should he be present, Mr. Mason?" "I believe him to be an honest man," said Mr. Mason, with some sternness. "Honesty, Sir! It is hard to say what is honesty and what is dishonesty. Would you believe it, Mr. Mason, only last night I had a thousand pounds offered me to hold my tongue about this affair?" Mr. Mason at the moment did not believe this, but he merely looked hard into his companion's face, and said nothing. "By the heavens above us what I tell you is true! a thousand pounds, Mr. Mason! Only think how they are going it to get this thing stifled. And where should the offer come from but from those who know I have the power?" "Do you mean to say that the offer came from this firm ?" "Hush-sh, Mr. Mason. The very walls hear and talk in such a place as this. I'm not to know who made the offer, and I don't know. But a man can give a very good guess sometimes. The party who was speaking to me is up to the whole transaction, and knows exactly what is going on here-here, in this house. He “As one of Mr. Mason's legal advisers,” said let it all out, using pretty nigh the same words Dockwrath. "If you are to be one of them, Messrs. Round and Crook can not be the others. I think I explained that to you before. It now remains for Mr. Mason to say whether he wishes to employ our firm in this matter or not. And I can tell him fairly," Mr. Round added this after a slight pause, "that we shall be rather pleased than otherwise if he will put the case into other hands." "Of course I wish you to conduct it," said Mr. Mason, who, with all his bitterness against the present holders of Orley Farm, was afraid of throwing himself into the hands of Dockwrath. He was not an ignorant man, and he knew that the firm of Round and Crook bore a high reputation before the world. "Then," said Round, "I must do my business in accordance with my own views of what is right. I have reason to believe that no one has yet tampered with this woman," and as he spoke he looked hard at Dockwrath, "though probably attempts may have been made." "I don't know who should tamper with her," said Dockwrath, "unless it be Lady Masonwhom I must say you seem very anxious to protect." as Round used just now. He was full about the "And you think he was an emissary from Messrs. Round and Crook ?" "Hush-sh-sh. For Heaven's sake, Mr. Mason, do be a little lower. You can put two and two together as well as I can, Mr. Mason. I find they make four. I don't know whether your calculation will be the same. My belief is, that these people are determined to save that woman. Don't you see it in that young fellow's eye--that his heart is all on the other side. Now he's got hold of that woman Bolster, and he'll teach her to give such evidence as will upset us. But I'll be even with him yet, Mr. MaIf you'll only trust me, we'll both be even with him yet." son. Mr. Mason at the present moment said nothing further, and when Dockwrath pressed him to continue the conversation in whispers, he distinctly said that he would rather say no more upon the subject just then. He would wait for Mr. Round's return. "Am I at liberty," he asked, "to mention that offer of the thousand pounds?" "Another word like that, Sir, and I shall be compelled to ask you to leave the house. I believe that this woman has been tampered with by no one. I will now learn from her what is her remembrance of the circumstances as they occurred twenty years since, and I will then read to you her deposition. I shall be sorry, gentlemen, to keep you here, perhaps for an hour or so, but you will find the morning papers "What to Mat Round?" said Dockwrath. on the table." And then Mr. Round, gather-"Certainly not, Mr. Mason. It wouldn't be ing up certain documents, passed into the outer our game at all." office, and Mr. Mason and Mr. Dockwrath were "Very well, Sir." And then Mr. Mason left alone. took up a newspaper, and no further words were "He is determined to get that woman off," spoken till the door opened and Mr. Round resaid Mr. Dockwrath, in a whisper. entered the room. This he did with slow, deliberate step, and stopping on the hearth-rug, he stood leaning with his back against the mantle-piece. It was clear from his face to see that he had much to tell, and clear also that he was not pleased at the turn which affairs were taking. "Well, gentlemen, I have examined the woman," he said, "and here is her deposition." "And what does she say?" asked Mr. Mason. "Come, out with it, Sir," said Dockwrath. "Did she, or did she not, sign two documents on that day?" "Mr. Mason," said Round, turning to that gentleman, and altogether ignoring Dockwrath and his question; "I have to tell you that her statement, as far as it goes, fully corroborates your view of the case. As far as it goes, mind you." 66 Oh, it does, does it?" said Dockwrath. "And she is the only important witness?" said Mr. Mason, with great exultation. "I have never said that; what I did say was this-that your case must break down unless her evidence supported it. It does support itstrongly; but you will want more than that." "And now, if you please, Mr. Round, what is it that she has deposed?" asked Dockwrath. "She remembers it all, then ?" said Mason. "She is a remarkably clear-headed woman, and apparently does remember a great deal. But her remembrance chiefly and most strongly goes to this-that she witnessed only one deed." "She can prove that, can she?" said Mason, and the tone of his voice was loudly triumphant. "She declares that she never signed but one deed in the whole of her life-either on that day or on any other; and over and beyond this she says now-now that I have explained to her what that other deed might have been-that old Mr. Usbech told her that it was about a partnership." 66 "He did, did he?" said Dockwrath, rising from his chair and clapping his hands. "Very well. I don't think we shall want more than that, Mr. Mason." There was a tone of triumph in the man's voice, and a look of gratified malice in his countenance which disgusted Mr. Round and irritated him almost beyond his power of endurance. It was quite true that he would much have preferred to find that the woman's evidence was in favor of Lady Mason. He would have been glad to learn that she actually had witnessed the two deeds on the same day. His tone would have been triumphant, and his face gratified, had he returned to the room with such tidings. His feelings were all on that side, though his duty lay on the other. He had almost expected it would be so. As it was, he was prepared to go on with his duty, but he was not prepared to endure the insolence of Mr. Dockwrath. There was a look of joy also about Mr. Mason which added to his annoyance. might be just and necessary to prosecute that unfortunate woman at Orley Farm, but he could not gloat over such work. It "Mr. Dockwrath," he said, "I will not put up with such conduct here. If you wish to rejoice about this, you must go elsewhere." "And what are we to do now?" said Mr. Mason. "I presume there need be no further delay." "I must consult with my partner. If you can make it convenient to call this day week-" "But she will escape.' "No, she will not escape. I shall not be ready to say any thing before that. If you are not in town, then I can write to you." And so the meeting was broken up, and Mr. Mason and Mr. Dockwrath left the lawyer's office together. Mr. Mason and Mr. Dockwrath left the office in Bedford Row together, and thus it was almost a necessity that they should walk together for some distance through the streets. Mr. Mason was going to his hotel in Soho Square, and Mr. Dockwrath turned with him through the passage leading into Red Lion Square, linking his own arm in that of his companion. The Yorkshire county magistrate did not quite like this, but what was he to do? "Did you ever see any thing like that, Sir?" said Mr. Dockwrath; "for by Heavens I never did." "Like what?" said Mr. Mason. It is "Like that fellow there-that Round. my opinion that he deserves to have his name struck from the rolls. Is it not clear that he is doing all in his power to bring that wretched woman off? And I'll tell you what, Mr. Mason, if you let him play his own game in that way, he will bring her off." "But he expressly admitted that this woman Bolster's evidence is conclusive." "Yes; he was so driven into a corner that he could not help admitting that. The woman had been too many for him, and he found that he couldn't cushion her. But do you mind my words, Mr. Mason. He intends that you shall be beaten. It's as plain as the nose on your face. You can read it in the very look of him, and in every tone of his voice. At any rate I can. I'll tell you what it is"-and then he squeezed very close to Mr. Mason-"he and old Furnival understand each other in this matter like two brothers. Of course Round will have his bill against you. Win or lose, he'll get his costs out of your pocket. But he can make a deuced pretty thing out of the other side as well. Let me tell you, Mr. Mason, that when notes for a thousand pounds are flying here and there, it isn't every lawyer that will see them pass by him without opening his hand." "I do not think that Mr. Round would take a bribe," said Mr. Mason, very stiffly. "Wouldn't he? Just as a hound would a pat of butter. It's your own look-out, you know, Mr. Mason. I haven't got an estate of twelve hundred a year depending on it. But remember this-if she escapes now, Orley Farm is gone forever." All this was extremely disagreeable to Mr. Mason. In the first place, he did not at all like the tone of equality which the Hamworth attor- approach to the tent, and none of us could boast ney had adopted; he did not like to acknowledge a good view of the royal party; but later in the that his affairs were in any degree dependent on day all who returned by water were amply gratia man of whom he thought so badly as he did of fied. Mr. Dockwrath; he did not like to be told that Round and Crook were rogues-Round and Crook whom he had known all his life; but least of all did he like the feeling of suspicion with which, in spite of himself, this man had imbued him, or the fear that his victim might at last escape him. Excellent, therefore, as had been the evidence which Bridget Bolster had declared herself ready to give in his favor, Mr. Mason was not a contented man when he sat down to his solitary beef-steak in Soho Square. Toward sunset the vast multitude with one accord began to move homeward; the banks were lined with vehicles and pedestrians, while the narrow river itself seemed alive with caïques, so close together that there was not room enough for the oars, and poles were used to push them along. Many of these light canoes ran aground, others became interlocked, collisions were numerous, but the happy passengers viewed these disasters in the light of pleasant episodes; while the boatmen, renowned for giving vent to the vilest Billingsgate upon the most trivial provocation, and proverbially chary of the slightest scratch on the well-polished sides of their boats, THE REIGN OF SULTAN ABDUL- displayed an amiability of temper truly refresh MEDJID. ing to witness. A long island divides the stream, N the summer of 1838, during the great feast but the gay fleet, instead of debouching into the Si interpret this despotic order; for of course the navigation grew still more intricate, and laughable accidents occurred at every step. Boats by the hundreds became wedged in side by side, between the banks, like potted herrings, and vain was many an effort to propel them. Passengers danced to the sound of the rebec and tambourine; shouts of laughter resounded on every side; veiled coquettes, green-turbaned priests and beaver-covered infidels, lay cheek by jowl most amicably. A sharp turn in the channel increased the uproar to the most joyous degree, when, to the surprise of every one, the royal family, sheltered by the unmistakable imperial crimson umbrella, appeared at an open balcony which projected over the water's edge. proud Stambul, a countless multitude of men, stationed in a guard-boat, to take the narrower women, and children poured forth, toward the one, which did not appear broader than an Valley of Sweet Waters, bent on gayly celebra-ordinary canal. Curiosity was at its height to ting their release from the tedious fast of Ramazan. I made one of a party of friends-for who could withstand the universal hilarity?-and glided up the tortuous channel of the willowbanked stream. Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Europeans swelled the numbers of the immense throng. Bankers deserted their counting-honses; tradesmen closed their stalls. lence reigned in the streets of the metropolis; not even the voice of the water-carrier could be heard. The labyrinth of the bazars, so puzzling to travelers, was threaded only by equally discontented dogs and policemen. Every itinerant merchant hastened to the favorite place of resort to vend his wares and refreshments; jugglers and gipsy women pandered to the taste of the vulgar by indecent pantomime and gross plays upon words. Ox-carts with gilded yokes and tricked out in tawdry ornaments, lumbering Cinderella coaches, nondescript equipages, and boats of every description and pattern, at every moment, arrived in one unbroken procession, and rapidly deposited on the vast green meadow the beauty, fashion, and aristocracy of Constantinople. Bent on enjoying the fun, the Sultan had capriciously diverted the picturesque armada into this narrow passage, and there he sat not twenty feet distant from the sturdiest republican among us. It was with intense interest I gazed on the group. Mahmoud was in the prime of life; his portly frame, dark piercing eye, jetblack beard, and noble presence strongly marked About noon a regiment of lancers hurriedly the destroyer of the Janizaries. What a rodefiled through the crowd, looking at a distance mance that man's career had been! Conceallike an enormous scarlet centiped eating its way ed, by the devotion of a slave, in the hot chamthrough a writhing mass of life. The noisy bers of an oven, he escaped the fate of Selim to clamors of the multitude and the cries of ped- ascend the throne of Constantine, from whence diers were immediately hushed, while suppressed he dictated new laws, and crushed a turbulent whispers announced the approach of the Hiun- body of disaffected subjects. By his side stood Kyar, or "Blood Drinker." A carriage, drawn Abdul-Medjid, a slight, melancholy, aristocraticby four splendid bays and followed by an im- looking youth; pale, beardless, and handsome; posing cortége, now swept rapidly up the avenue destined soon-alas! too soon for the welfare of formed by the lancers, and proceeded to a large Turkey-to sway the sceptre of the Califs. Abdmarquée pitched on a knoll commanding the ul-Aziz, a chubby boy with a round, fat face and whole plain. Three persons alighted, whom ruddy complexion, was leaning over the balusthe by-standers pointed out as Mahmoud and his trade, merrily laughing at the confusion, and two sons: the elder, the subject of this article; pointing out to his father every mirth-exciting the other, Abdul-Aziz, the now-reigning mon- object. Could a more interesting group be search. Surly household troops prevented a near lected! Three successive Osmanli chieftains in one living picture: the one a Peter the Great; | Turkish feudatory chieftains; but in the prothe other a Sardanapalus; the third probably a tracted struggle waged with his powerful vassal, Boabdil, doomed to hear accursed bells chiming the Pasha of Egypt, he lost heart at repeated from tapering minaret, and Christian anthems reverses, drowned his disappointment in the inchanted under crescent-tipped domes. Twenty-terdicted beverages of the Giaour, and suddenly three years have now elapsed, but this royal group died of a debauch, leaving every thing in the remains as indelibly stamped upon my memory greatest disorder. as if the scene had occurred but yesterday. To purify the Augean stables of corruption, to In the palmy days of muscle-worship every curb the fanatic impulses of a disaffected priestSultan was bound by a time-honored custom to hood, to cut the Gordian knot of European intransmit to posterity some evidence of his phys-trigue and resuscitate a decaying empire, reical powers. The national bow was accordingly quired talents of a very high order; and when adopted as the standard, and upon an unusually Abdul-Medjid ascended the throne, July 2, 1839, long shot a handsome marble column was erect- he was the observed of the civilized world. The ed to mark the spot where the arrow alighted. late Sultan, at the dawn of his reign, bade fair On a fine piece of table-land, overlooking the to revive an effete nationality, to be hailed by Arsenal, numbers of these monuments bear wit- his subjects as the regenerator of Turkey-its ness in large characters to the skill of every very palladium. A few years rolled on, and toxophilite successor of Osman; but so funereal the aspirations of the would-be-founder of a great in appearance that the uninformed traveler would empire were bounded by the walls of his kitchen more likely imagine himself in a neglected cem- and harem. By constant dissipation and sensuetery than in a royal archery-ground. While ality, prematurely old at thirty-eight, he died, rambling in this neighborhood in the autumn of the 25th June, 1861, heartily detested by his the same year, it was my luck to come across subjects, the scoff and jeer of Europe, leaving the stalwart monarch gayly contending with the behind a well-stocked seraglio, an empty treasheir-apparent in this hereditary exercise of the ury, a bankrupt empire, which now exists simply bow. The attendants put up no target, for ac- by the mercenary sufferance of powerful creditors curacy in aim was not the test; it was a mere and by the perplexed nature of European politics. trial of strength, measured by the flight of the shaft. A strong wind was blowing up the dust in thick clouds, and I noticed how carefully the royal archer pointed his arrows in the direction of the atmospheric current; indeed I am inclined to the suspicion that the marvelous shots of the Amuraths and Mustaphas of the Ottoman dynasty were more indebted to flattering gales than to any extraordinary development of muscle. The young prince, although he made a great show of doing his best, either lacked the ability, or proved too polished a courtier to win the gage from his sire, for all his arrows fell far short, much to the delight of the victor. Of the early life and education of the young prince little is known. The seraglio has no great fame as a school for virtue; nor have its literary tendencies ever been in danger of eulogy. Real study he never experienced; but female slaves, astrologers, and bigoted priests directed his leisure, and succeeded in keeping him through life an overgrown boy. Somehow he acquired a tolerable smattering of the French language; and in his library I have seen a complete edition of Voltaire's works-a perusal of which must have tended not only to undermine the little faith he professed in the Koran, but also any leanings toward the religious creeds of his neighbors. In manly accomplishments no one could be more deficient: he never could sit a horse gracefully: but his worst detractors confess to his amiability and to his fondness for music; while his taste in wine, women, and architecture remains undisputed. A few months more witnessed great changes. Mahmoud, after introducing many praiseworthy reforms, had turned his attention toward checking the enormous abuse of power wielded by Once crowned-or, in Eastern parlance, having girded on his sword—his first act savored of a curious barbaric clemency. Instead of decapitating the court physicians, who were so unfortunate as not to restore his father to health, he generously commuted their sentence to banishment to remote islands of the Archipelago, gently hinting that a few months' quiet study would not come amiss to their professional attainments. After performing this filial act of retribution, he next made great preparations to receive an humble nucleus for his harem, in the shape of a dozen Circassian virgins-a gift from kind mamma, who had spent a whole week and pawned all her jewels in culling the fairest flowers of the slavemarkets. A week later the new Sultan dismissed the court-jester into honorable exile, either because old age had rendered his jokes stale and his humor querulous, or, what is less uncharitable, Turkey, a trifle more enlightened, was ready to part with that vestige of barbarism. A few Fridays after coming to the throne we find the young monarch evincing a courage unlooked for in a youth reared in the enervating atmosphere of the seraglio. While worshiping at the tomb of Mahmoud his devotions were disturbed by a sepulchral voice, which, issuing from the very bowels of the earth, admonished him to ignore all European innovations, and cling to the traditions of his ancestors. "I burn, 1 burn," groaned the pseudo-ghost of the royal sinner, "for having introduced infidel customs: take warning from my example." According to Oriental superstition the soul hovers near its late tenement, and consequently the attendants shuddered in great dismay. Abdul-Medjid, however, so far from being awed into unwholesome fanaticism, instantly ordered his guards to |