"I bore all the accounts of Georgina tolerably well. I must say with Cardenis, That which her beauty has built up, her actions have destroyed. By the first I understood her to be an angel; by the last I know her to be a woman.' But this is enough of this disagreeable subject." de In the same letter he sends his love to dear Madame "who, upon cool consideration, is as charming a creature as is in the world-in fact, she is sincere, which is a quality rather rare." If a blow had been inflicted upon his faith in human nature by the infidelity of his cousin, one cannot but believe, judging by the sequel, that it was one that quickly recovered. It might have been well for Lord Edward himself-well also for the cause to which he was to devote himself-had his confidence in the sincerity of human kind been less. Thus ended Lord Edward's second love affair. It is said that another dramatic incident came near to being added to the story. On his arrival in London after his prolonged absence he had hurried at once to his mother's house, where it so chanced that she was that evening entertaining her niece, Lady Apsley, and her husband at dinner. It was only by the recognition of Lord Edward's voice outside by another cousin, General Fox, and by his prompt interposition, that the discarded lover was prevented from introducing a disconcerting and unexpected element into the family party. CHAPTER VII 1790-1792 Lord Edward offered Command of the Cadiz Expedition- TH 'HERE is something strange and relentless, to the eyes of those who follow the course of Lord Edward's history, in the manner in which his doom-the doom of a cause-hunted him down. He had not sought it. In character and temperament he was most unlike a man destined to be the chief actor in a tragedy. But there was no escape. It drew closer and closer, like what in truth it was, the Angel of Death. Almost immediately upon his arrival in London a proposal was made to him. Had the plan with which it was concerned been carried into effect, the whole course of his subsequent career might have been changed. He was still, before everything, a soldier. His political views, pronounced as they were, had as yet taken no practical or revolutionary shape. He was committed to no course of action from which he could not, in honour, have withdrawn. For politics as a profession it has been shown that he had little liking; while his recent experience of the difficulties. in which he was liable to find himself at any moment involved by a change of front on the part of his brother may reasonably have inclined him to regard with additional distaste the position he held in the House as the Duke's nominee. Under these circumstances the Dissolution occurring in the spring of the year which saw which saw his return to his return to England must have been peculiarly welcome, as releasing him from the necessity of once more taking up the burden of his Parliamentary duties. He came home, as he imagined, a free man, neither contemplating nor desiring the continuance of a political career, and at liberty to devote himself for the future to the profession he loved that of a soldier. It was while labouring under this misapprehension that he received and accepted an offer made to him by the Government, through the instrumentality of the Duke of Richmond. Struck by the good use to which his nephew had put the opportunities of observation afforded him both during his tour in Spain and his more recent visit to the Spanish colonies, the Duke had invited him to meet Pitt and Dundas, with the result of an offer both of brevet promotion and of the command of an expedition shortly to be despatched against Cadiz. The prospect may well have been dazzling to a soldier of twenty-six. The proposal was one after Lord Edward's own heart, and he closed with it without hesitation; the understanding being that, in return for the honour done him in singling him out for a position of responsibility and importance, he should no longer be found in the ranks of the Opposition. In this arrangement there was nothing inconsistent with the determination he had expressed in the preceding year to accept nothing, at that time, from the party in power. "I am determined," he had then written, "to have nothing till I am out of Parliament." He was now, or imagined himself to be, without a seat; and that he should have felt no difficulty in giving this purely negative pledge is a proof of the firmness of his belief that he had finally withdrawn from any active participation in political life. This being the case, he would doubtless have considered it idle to allow a purposeless parade of opinions having no bearing upon action to interfere with the performance of his duty as a soldier. Had he been permitted to carry into effect his intention of retiring from Parliament and of devoting himself to his profession, the history of Ireland might have lacked one of its most tragic chapters. But Fate had ordered it otherwise. The matter was considered practically settled. The Duke was to report the arrangement which had been arrived at to the King, of whose approval and sanction no doubt was entertained. An unexpected obstacle, however, intervened, and put an abrupt end to the negotiations. The Duke of Leinster, against the expressed wishes of his mother, had, before the arrival of Lord Edward in England, taken the step of returning his brother to the new Parliament, as member for the county of Kildare. He was not, as he had conceived himself to be, released from the trammels of Parliamentary obligations; and on the very day following his interview with the Duke of Richmond, he was made acquainted with the fact. It must have been a bitter disappointment-one of those to which life was accustoming him, and which were driving him more and more in a single direction. One by one, outlet after outlet for energy and devotion was becoming blocked; and every pathway barred save that which he was to be doomed to tread. The course pointed out by honour, under these new circumstances, was plain, and he did not flinch from following it. The alternative of declining the seat to which his brother had nominated him does not appear to have suggested itself to his mind; and since he was, though against his will, to occupy once more the position of a member of Parliament, it was impossible that he should take his seat there as a supporter of the party which he had consistently opposed. In vain his uncle, angered at the frustration, by what he considered his nephew's obstinacy, of his plans on his behalf, warned him that nothing in the shape of promotion or advancement was to be looked for by a man who refused his vote to the Government. Lord Edward withdrew, without delay or hesitation, the quasi |