Page:Paul Clifford Vol 3.djvu/333

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PAUL CLIFFORD.
325

been starved, or slain by the natives—or whether, more fortunate, he had ultimately found the means of crossing the seas, was as yet unknown. There ended the adventures of the gallant Robber; and thus, by a strange coincidence, the same mystery which wrapped the fate of Lucy, involved also that of her lover. And here, kind reader, might we drop the curtain on our closing scene, did we not think it might please thee to hold it up yet one moment, and give thee another view of the world behind.

In a certain town of that Great Country, where shoes are imperfectly polished,[1] and Opinions are not prosecuted, there resided, twenty years after the date of Lucy Brandon's departure from England, a man held in high and universal respect, not only for the rectitude of his conduct, but for the energies of his mind, and the purposes to which they were directed. If you asked who cultivated that waste? the answer was—"Clifford." Who procured the establishment of that hospital?—"Clifford!" Who obtained the redress

  1. See Captain Hall's late work on America.