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DUTY AND INCLINATION.
299


But to give Sir Aubrey the credit due to him, it is necessary to state that he entertained the good intention, in removing his son from London, to remove him, not only from his own immediate vicinity, but also from that society which had hitherto led him into extravagance.

A staff appointment, and one highly lucrative, at this particular juncture in his son's affairs, becoming vacant in Ireland, Sir Aubrey, fearing to lose sight of so favourable an occasion, delayed not to solicit it for his son. Nor was he disappointed; De Brooke was named to succeed Major-General Haughton in the command of the district comprising the county of,——, with the injunction of repairing thither immediately.

Thus pressed. Sir Aubrey, by the advice of Mr. Arden, employed the attorney whom we have already introduced at the Bench,—where, yielding to a painful suspense, De Brooke but little knew of what had been operating in his favour, and was about effecting so desirable a change in his destiny. If not to his immediate intercession, thought he, it was certainly to his father's high consideration at Court he owed this distinguished military advancement, at a period of life when, in truth, he was the youngest Major-General in His Majesty's service.