CHAPTER VI. Thou gentle dawning of a bright success, In thee, or in possession. COWLEY. "THIS is the last letter I shall write you. I hope to be with you in London before two months are expired. Let me therefore detail the sequel of my journey to Dorrington, where I have been upwards of a week. I believe I stated that my hopes were fixed upon a darling scheme, by which I firmly trusted to see myself once more received into favor. And this, thanks to Providence ! will now take place, "I have seen my father! but he recognised me not. With him I am Colonel Archer, the preserver of his son's life, and not Louis Sagittarius. I cannot explain the joy and satisfaction I reaped from the meeting which took place between us on the hill, in sight of the very mansion where I first drew breath. I was indebted further to an accident for becoming acquainted with my father, who invited me to his house within a very few minutes after I met him. I have since surprised him by my acquaintance with the localities of this part of the county. My foolish raptures have often made me pay a proportional penance for my imprudence. But fortunately my father is not alive to deep suspicion. Whatever inferences he may by chance draw from my conduct, bear no weight with him, as he trusts entirely to the science of astrology for evidence of the characters of those with whom he deals. It is curious to know how differently, therefore, he regards me under my present name. The stars and signs are disposed to behave well to me as Colonel Archer; in short, I have a nati vity granted me so obviously at variance with the one my father cast for his son Louis, that I can hardly contain an inclination to laugh. So much for the veracity of this unerring science !' 6 My introduction to my sister Julia followed the interview I accidentally gained of my father. How ardently I longed to enfold her in my arms, and to stamp upon her lips the kiss of fraternal love! She is pretty, lively, and is besides, mistress of a charming ingenuousness. But my praise of her must be cold in comparison to what I am inclined to bestow on her lovely cousin, Miss Stables. The feelings of an admirer (for I am deeply entangled in the net laid for my heart by the urchin God) I always expand in immoderate panegyrics. I could say a hundred things of her perfections, but I fear that my language would not even then do justice to her beauty and accomplishments. Behold me therefore in the enjoyment of a daily society which is sweet and delightful to my feelings beyond measure. know not whether the consciousness of my being entitled to the familiar conversation of Julia and Maria has any ten_ dency to encrease my boldness; but it is certain that they sometimes look at each other half amazed at my questions and answers, though they become more partial to me each succeeding day. 'My father, I was naturally grieved to find, still pursued his studies in Astrology. He entertained me with a description of my own horoscope. Some particulars were true-such as my running away from home; but it was manifestly faulty in the main point: in short, I was condemned to die by rule or method in my eighteenth year, and yet I have already attained my twenty-eighth! with some prospect too, of holding out longer! My poor credulous father is so positive in this respect, which is aided by a mistake in the Gazette, that your evidence may become an absolute requisite when 1 please to declare myself, in order to identify me as the individual Louis Sagittarius. You may laugh at this; but remember that I cannot enter into the same view of this mistake as yourself. I shall wait some time yet, ere I discover my real title, as I wish to prove to my father that the science is spurious and false. of me, 'My father preserves a remembrance and I am inclined to think that he is sorry for what he did. His prediction concerning my attempt on his own and Charles' life, has given way to repentance for the mistake he committed in calculating such mischief. "On the first day I enjoyed the hap |