"Colambre."

The count, in the mean time, wrote a letter for him to Sir James
Brooke, describing the packet which he had given to the ambassador,
and relating all the circumstances that could lead to its recovery.
Lord Colambre, almost before the wax was hard, seized the letter; the
count seeming almost as eager to hurry him off as he was to set out.
He thanked the count with few words, but with strong feeling. Joy and
love returned in full tide upon our hero's soul; all the military
ideas, which but an hour before filled his imagination, were put to
flight: Spain vanished, and green Ireland reappeared.

Just as they shook hands at parting, the good old general, with a
smile, said to him, "I believe I had better not stir in the matter of
Benson's commission till I hear more from you. My harangue, in favour
of the military profession, will, I fancy, prove, like most other
harangues, a waste of words."




CHAPTER XVI.


In what words of polite circumlocution, or of cautious diplomacy,
shall we say, or hint, that the deceased ambassador's papers were
found in shameful disorder. His excellency's executor, Sir James
Brooke, however, was indefatigable in his researches. He and Lord
Colambre spent two whole days in looking over portfolios of letters,
and memorials, and manifestoes, and bundles of paper of the most