A near relative of Lever's tells us that there was a side to his character which the world never saw-the more powerful his social displays the greater the depression which followed them. These reactions would begin ere the guests he invited had fully completed their adieux. The half hour which preludes departure from a dinner party was not without its pains, as one by one the guests bowed, slided, half pressed his fingers, and vanished. He persuaded himself that some few who lingered, and affected to seem at ease, were inwardly cursing their coachmen for delay. He confessed that the same doubts which often tormented himself at such moments, recurred whenever he had brought a serial story to an endwhether the entertainment he had provided had pleased his guests and whether the introductions proved quite satisfactory; and he adds that the same sense of solitude which affects the host in his banquet hall when the guests had left, settles down upon the weary writer who watches the spirits he had conjured up suddenly vanish. In his rôle both of host and author, the same sad doubts would come, how much better he could do his part were the same ground to be retraced—what opportunities for amusing or interesting his friends had now gone for ever!

The best cure for such stings was to divert the mind from its brooding by plans of new stories. These passed rapidly through Lever's head; one greatly interested and amused his family. The Rev. Samuel Hayman, that able critic and genial friend, was begged to come from Cork

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and hear what he styled a rehearsal of it at Templeogue. He had been invited in the spring, the summer, and the autumn, but something occurred to prevent him, and now that rugged winter had come with a drop at his nose, Lever asked the good curé why he would not venture forth and take his place by the fire? Life was a short thing; the best of it was the little uncostly interludes of social and affectionate intercourse which without altering the great current of men's fortunes, throw flowers on the stream. Therefore Hayman should come. Their gossipings had had a long arrear; and he was urged not to let the debt accumulate so heavily as to make payment a matter of terror.

CHAPTER III.

Recollections of Lever by his Amanuensis, Mr. Stephen Pearce "St. Patrick's Eve "-"The O'Donoghue "-He again threatens to tear up the roots which his life had sown in the soil of Ireland.

It was about this time that Mr. Stephen Pearce, now a distinguished portrait painter in London, acted as amanuensis for Lever, just as George Huntly Gordon did for Scott; and following the example of Mr. Gordon, who communicated to Mr. Lockhart what he knew, Mr. Pearce has furnished us with some recollections of his Chief. These extend from October, 1844, to September, 1846, and also embrace some reminiscences of the years 1848-9.

"In the autumn of 1844 I went to Ireland, and stopped with some friends of the Right Hon. J. W. Croker, to whom he had given me a letter of introduction, and for whom I had just previously in England copied the portrait of Miss Croker, by Sir Thomas Lawrence. To my surprise, I found that their grounds adjoined those of Charles Lever, and being one of his most enthusiastic admirers, Mrs. Ellis soon introduced ine at Templeogue House. A mutual regard and affection at once sprang up between Lever and myself, and a long visit only augmented this friendship. I there painted his portrait,

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given afterwards to his brother; I also painted a picture of his study, with its ancient oak, with a back view of Lever himself sitting over the fire; also another small picture of the quaint old Dutch waterfall in front of the house, falling over a series of wide steps, with some fine old elm trees, the remains in years past of an ambitious avenue. Templeogue House, at the time I speak of, belonged to the Domville family, and had, I think long previously, been the residence of Lord Santry in size, no doubt, it had been considerably reduced, but its walls of great thickness, the ghost room within, and faint remains of old terraced walks without, still attested its former importance and the startling stories of Irish life Lever used to speak of.*

"Lever at this time was about thirty-five years of age, most powerful in form, and full of energy in anything he really took up. On fine afternoons, we often rode at a rattling pace to his publisher's in Sackville Street, Dublin-some five English miles. [A party of boys were usually to be found awaiting us on Portobello Bridge, popularly known as 'Lever's Pack.' These

* Lever was under the impression, and often interested his guests by expressing it, that Templeogue House had been the scene of a horrible cruelty, said to have been performed by Lord Santry to O'Loughlin Murphy, but reference to the report of the trial fails to confirm this idea. This peer has been frequently accused, even in print, of having compelled a man to swallow whiskey till his mouth filled to overflow, and to have then applied a lighted match with fatal effect. He was certainly tried for his murder but Lord Santry's cousin, Mr. Domville, who supplied Dublin with water from the Dodder, at Templeogue, having threatened to cut it off unless the noble convict's life were spared, the Viceroy yielded to the pressure.

followed us, sometimes yelping like hounds, and arrived at much the same time as ourselves before the door of Curry the publisher in Sackville Street, where a goodhumoured struggle took place amongst them, to see whose lucky lot it was to hold Lever's horse. These boys he always paid so liberally, that the Rev. John Lever, whose tastes were economic rather than extravagant, remonstrated privately with Charles on the point.]*

"If the weather happened to be wet or doubtful, we did not generally venture to Dublin at all, but invariably rode with the three children, Julia, Charley and Pussy in the large fields at the rear of the house, 'Where many a garden flower grew wild.' Here I remember some old trees had fallen, and it was Lever's great delight for us to gallop round in line, and jump the trees-he generally giving a wild "hurroo" as we all five took the jump together.

"Sometimes we made the circuit of several of these fields, and it was on one of these occasions that Lever had a very smart hand-to-hand fight with a thick-set powerful countryman. We had noticed two men prowling about in the distance, and at last one jumped a ditch, and scrambled over a gap into the field in which we were riding. Lever ordered him out of it, and meeting with an impudent reply, he pressed a hot-tempered chestnut mare he was riding with his heels, and her shoulder caused the intruder to go with considerable impetus towards the gap. In a great rage, the man

* The supplemental passages in brackets were told to us viva voce by Mr. Pearce, and are introduced with his leave.