to avoid a duel, to reconcile the estranged couple, and to make it perfectly clear that his moderation is due, not to want of courage, but to the loftiest magnanimity. Returning to England, he settles on his property, to become the cynosure of the surrounding society, much to the disgust of the brutal Squire Tyrrel, who had previously had things all his own way. Tyrrel bullies his tenants, especially certain Hawkinses, and Falkland takes them under his protection. Tyrrel then tries to force a poor girl who is dependent upon him into a marriage with a lout, and though Falkland again endeavours to intervene, she dies in consequence of Tyrrel's machinations. Falkland, righteously indignant, denounces Tyrrel at a public assembly, and the ruffian is abashed by the power of reason. As soon as he has got out of hearing, however, he recovers himself, and returns to deliver a knock-down blow, a kind of argument which he had learnt from the heroes of the prize-ring. Falkland, who is slight, though inimitably graceful, retires to consider the position. A duel would be the obvious result, unless indeed Tyrrel had forfeited the right to meet a gentleman. Had Falkland been a Godwinite, he would not have adopted that barbarous custom; but perhaps
