"His lordship?"-echoed Miss Avesford, a little surprised.

"Lord Dinton, madam,—the Earl of Dinton -who left you just now," explained the waiter, fearing, from her puzzled looks, that the lady might be dizzy with long fasting.

Dizzy or not, her appetite was already destroyed by consciousness of her want of courtesy. To conceal her embarrassment, she began to cross-question the attendants concerning the mischances of Sir John.

It appeared that, towards the close of the poll, the preceding day, much ill-feeling had disturbed the hustings. In the struggle, several persons were thrown down, trampled upon, and seriously injured.—A procession, bearing on a shutter the body of a dead child, (which, as was afterwards proved, was not a victim to the scuffle,) paraded the town. At length, when it transpired that a messenger had been despatched by the inspector of the police force to the barracks, requiring the aid of a company of infantry,

stones and other missiles began to be thrown: by one of which, Sir John Wraysbury was struck down. For some hours, he had remained insensible; and even yet, consciousness was only partially restored.-Till the results of the concussion had been ascertained, Dr. Gardiner, his privileged torturer, declared that, he could not be said to be out of danger.

CHAPTER IV.

FOR the four whole days ensuing, Janetta scarcely quitted the dressing-room adjoining her father's sick chamber; though for the greater part of the first two, he remained unconscious of her arrival.-It was, of course, avouched by his surgical attendants, according to the established rule in such cases, that had the blow been struck an eighth of an inch higher or lower, it must have been fatal.-As it was, there was reason to fear that, besides the scalp wound, a deposit had been formed under the contusion, which still threatened perilous consequences.

The result was an immense reaction in favour of the new member. For member he was. While he still lay helpless and as one dead, the result of the poll was declared to be in his favour to an amount which rendered the persistance of the murderous party by which he had been assailed, as absurd as it was factious.

Perhaps they were conscious of their error; for at least as many of them crowded to the door of the hotel to examine the bulletins hourly perceived on its gate-posts, as of his own partizans. A Great Briton is said to be by nature cold and phlegmatic; but once warmed up, and freely massed with his kind, he blazes like camphine. Had Sir John Wraysbury died of his wound on the night of gaining his election, he would probably have been publicly buried at the cost of the county, and canonized afterwards; though what he had ever done to merit the loud huzzas shouted in his honour, or the post-obit articles already in type for him in the obituary, nay, in the leaders of more than

one of the daily papers, it would be hard to say. -A moderately good speech or two at Agricultural Meetings, promising more hereafter, and the amount of his annual income, were the sole authentic traits cited in his panegyric.

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But John Bull has long been accustomed to praise himself, as a lover of fair-play; and lapidation is the act of a ruffian, even in contested election. The cry of "cheap bread " died away in the distance; for the populace had become deeply concerned for the new M.P., when they learned how many doctors were in attendance. But when the news transpired in the town and neighbourhood that his beautiful daughter was also in attendance,—his only daughter, his heiress-daughter,— captivating the hearts of all who witnessed her filial devotion, the popularity of the suffering man rose to fever-heat. They now admitted that if he died, the verdict over his remains must be "Wilful Murder;" and could he have been elected over again, not a voter but would have

VOL. II.

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