The Amazing Marriage, v1

ntry at the time when crowned heads were running over Europe, crying out for charity's sake to b

her attendants loosen her tunic for her to take the bath, and her hounds are pricking their ears, and you see antlers of a stag behind a block of stone. She was a wonderful swimmer, among other things, and one early morning, when she was a girl, she did really swim, they say, across the Shannon and back to win a bet for her brother Lord Levellier, the colonel of cavalry, who left an arm in Egypt, and changed his way of life to bec

ess Fanny's eye beneath the brim she has tipped ever so slightly in her artfulness makes the absurd thing graceful and suitable. Oh! she was a cunning one. But you must be on your guard against the scandalmongers and collectors of anecdotes, and worst of any, the critic, o

portrait of the beautif

s of Cr

hing, and they are so indulgent when the

s on fire: I have known it myself, and I own it to my shame; and if I happened to be ignorant of the history of Countess Fanny, I could not refute his wantonness. He has just the same benevolent leer for a bishop. Give me, if we are to make a choice, the beggar's breech for decency, I say: I like it vastly in preference to a Nymney, who leads you up to the curtain and agitates it, and bi

e was indeed very blamable. Women should walk in armour as if they were born to it; for these cold sneerers will never waste their darts on cuirasses. An independent brave young creature, exposing herself thoughtlessly in her reckless innocence, is the victim for them. They will bring all society down on her with one of their explosive sly words appearing so careless, the cowards. I

here she stands in blue and white, completely dressed, near a table supporting a couple of holster pist

for her, he saying; that she was the girl to suit his book; not allowing her time to think of how much he might be the man to suit hers.

f a year people began to talk of them separately, she going her way, and he his.

ixty odd minutes, having the ground cleared all the way by bell and summons, and only a donkey-cart and man, and a deaf old woman, to pay for; and went, as you can imagine, at such a tearing gallop, that those Grand Highnesses had to hold on for thei

when Kirby passed her, and the Emperor made a remark on him, for Kirby was a magnificent figure of a man, and used to be compared to a three-decker entering harbour after a victory. He stood six feet four, and was broad-shouldered and deep-chested to match, and walked like a king who has humbled his enemy. You have seen big dogs. And so Countess Fanny looked round. Kirby

oming out of an engagement home with all her flags flying and her crew manning the yards. That will give you an idea of a young woman's feelings for an old warrior never beaten down an inch by anything he had to endure; matching him,

o be so distinguished in a nation of the brave, Countess Fanny related the well- known tale of Captain Kirby and the shipful of mutineers; and how when not a man of them stood by him, and he in the service of the first insurgent State of Spanish America, to save his ship from being taken over to the enemy,-he blew her up, fifteen miles from l

into the clouds. We are told that he never forgave the Admiralty for striking him off the list of E

ons of his own MAXIMS FOR MEN, a very curious book, that fetches a rare price now wherever a copy is put up for auction. I shudder at them as if they were muzzles of firearms pointed at me; but they were not addressed to

see a truly

the madman, 'Your strait- waistcoat is my easy-chair') monarchs have a great love of discipline, he begged Countess F

tar of Prin

is shed

ere till my

e of Count

and ballads out of number), Countess Fanny despatched her husband to Captain Kirby again, me

e drank to show his disdain of its powers; and the emperor wishing for a narrative of some of his exploits, particularly the blowing up of his ship, Kirby paid his Majesty the compliment of giving it him as baldly as an official report to the Admiralty. So disengaged and calm was he, with his bottles of champagne in him, where another would have been sparkling and laying on

ssett, her husband, began to grumble concerning her intimacy with a man old enough to be her grandfather. As if the age were the injury! He seemed to think it so, and vowed he would shoot the old

he castle, and peppered Kirby with shot from a fowling-pie

ire; and the young lord's hand shook, and the Old Buccaneer stood out of the smoke not

lect the words- here I have it in print:-'that he was a man pickled in saltpetre when an infant, like Achilles, and proof against powder and shot not marked with cross and key, and fetched up from the square magazine in the central depot of the infernal factory, th

orders under fire, best understood by sailors. I give it yo

by discharged his pistol at the top twigs of an old oak tree, and called the young lord a Briton, and proposed to

ressetts and Levelliers. Down they trooped to Cressett Castle with a rush and a roar, crying on the disgrace of an old desperado like Kirby living there; Dukes, Marchionesses, Cabinet Ministers, leaders of fashion, and fire-eating colo

ted, she was rigidly watched. The earl her husband fell altogether

ly my ga

and is

clear save my

e Counte

t goe

ss, at play

n a silv

dear to my b

f his Coun

bravery, that po

and songs upon famous events in thos

that was midnight of the month of June. The Levelliers and Cressetts foamed at the mouth in speaking of him, so enraged they were on account of his age and his passion for a young woman. As to blood, the Kirbys of Lincolnshire were quite equal to the Cressetts of Warwick. The O

uite the popular young English nobleman, being a capital whip and free of his coin, in those days men who had smelt powder were often prized above titles, and the feeling, out of socie

e to me!" c

and fresh

mighty bet

to be well

has in me,"

his ex

n sixty-three,

illon Switzer John Kirby, born eleven months after the elopement, was, we know, twenty- three years old when the old man gave up the ghost and bequeathed him little besides a law-suit with the Austrian Government, and the care of Carinthia Jane, the second chil

e squire of an ancient stock, was proud of his blood,

nk to me!"

d lass l

s my plan

her when

pedigree,"

to the charge that the countess ha

ause he found that he 'cursed better upon water.' Water, however, helped Stanson Kirby to outlive his brothers and inherit the Lincolnshire property, and at the period of the great scandal in London he was palsied, and waited on by his grandson and heir Ralph Th

rday,' sung by the poor coachman and labourers at the village ale-house before he starts to capture his wife from the clutc

money is sli

y ale it is

d woman is boi

't know when we'v

of never a man

an against us

hard on a set

e Saturday

the last

l joined in singing before he went out to face his end for t

ing. You saw nothing but handkerchiefs out all over the theatre. What it is that has gone from our drama, I cannot tell: I am never affected now as I was then; and people in a low station of life could affect me then, without being flung at me, for I dislike an entire dish of them, I own. We were simpler in our habits and ways of thinking. Elizabeth Martin, according to report, was a wom

for the