the case of the hospital near the custom-house, to perish at his leisure, of hunger and pain. He had had no food for three days, and the fever of his wound, together with the ghastly horrors round him, had driven this poor Englishman to raving madness; and so he was found, yelling, and naked. I think the impression made upon me by the sight of that foul heap of green and black, glazed and shrivelled flesh, I never shall be able to throw entirely away. At the moment, however, and I think it a wise ordinance, no sight such as war produces strikes deeply on the mind. We turned quickly back from this terrible sight, and soon after left the town. Riding up towards the Little Redan, we saw where the slaughter of the Russians had principally been. The ground was covered with patches and half-dried pools of blood, caps soaked in blood and brains, broken bayonets, and shot and shell; four or five dead horses, shot as they brought up ammunition for the last defence of the Malakoff. Here we met Colonel Norcott, of the Rifles, who had been reported a prisoner, riding the same chesnut pony which has had honourable mention before. Our congratulations on his escape, when we fancied him marching with the retreating Russians, were neither few nor insincere. The Malakoff lay just before us. I am told that it is, and it struck me as being, one of the most wonderful examples of engineering work possible. It is so constructed, that unless a shot fell precisely on the right spot, it could do no harm. What with gabions, sand-bags, traverses, counter-traverses, and various other means of defence, it seemed to me, that a residence in the Malakoff was far safer and more desirable than a residence in the town. Buried underground were officers' huts, men's huts, and a place used as a sort of mess-room, with glass lamps, and packs of cards. We are not allowed to carry any outward and visible signs of plunder, but I filled my habit pockets and saddle pockets with various small items, as reliques of these famous batteries and the famous town-lasts, buttons, and grape shot from the Redan; cards, a glass salt-cellar, an English fuzee, and the screw of a gun from the Malakoff; a broken bayonet from the Little Redan; and rifle bullets from the workshop in the town. Then, as it was growing late, we rode back to camp by the Woronzow Road, and down the French heights on to the Balaklava plain.

The realities of war contrast vividly with the falsehoods. In the one instance we have the dark vapourings of political hatreds through which no light, no hope for the future can be discerned. In the other, the truth stands out in not always agreeable, but still naked and bold relief. England, we know, is not in agony. Mistakes have been committed, incapacity has been manifested in high quarters, but all will right itself soon. "After all," Mrs. Duberly justly remarks, "Englishmen are not so helpless, so hopeless, and so foolish as they tried hard last year to make themselves out to be. I think they rested so entirely on the prestige that attached itself to the name of a British soldier, that they thought the very stars would come out of their courses to sustain the lustre of their name. Alas! their name was very literally dragged through the mud, during the miry winter months." It has undoubtedly been a severe lesson. We lost an army from the mere want of the most common-place organisation-we played a secondary part in the siege of Sebastopol from the want of men and the absence of sufficient generalship-but the Anglo-Saxon race is not so easily discouraged as the Franco-Russians-far more inveterate in their hostility than the Russians-would imagine it to be. It will rise purified by trial, resolute in difficulty, nerved for the conflict, and ultimately triumphant, as becomes the descendants of Cœur de Lion and the Black Prince, of Marlborough and Wellington, and of Blake and Nelson.

THE DOCK WARRANT S.

A TALE OF THE TIMES.-IN TWO PARTS.

BY DUDLEY COSTELLO.

PART THE FIRST.

CHAPTER I.

A SHORT CUT TO FORTUNE.

Of all the firms in London, trading as general merchants, metal and colonial brokers-designations which imply almost every kind of mercantile operation-none did a greater business than the house of Graysteel and Handyside, of Blasing-lane, Towzer-street, and Commercial Chambers, Gammonbury Buildings.

It was not, to be sure, one of those traditional firms which City men, when they are thinking of Mammon, involuntarily mutter to themselves in lieu of prayers, for it had risen somewhat suddenly-out of the mud of London, as it were; but it was not on that account the less respected, the great affairs in which "Graysteel and Handyside" were engaged, and the large sums that passed through their hands being, in City estimation, the true and only abstergent. That purism which will not recognise a high position until long years of toil have been devoted to attain it, has no existence now-a-days: when all are striving to reach the goal by the shortest cut, there is no time for turning round to ask your neighbour how he gained his place. "Graysteel and Handyside" were, consequently, looked up to; their movements were so regular, their undertakings so vast, and their payments so punctual, that it could scarcely have been otherwise. Indeed, unless they had been “ "looked up to" so universally, it is not very likely that Messrs. Godsend, Stiff, and Soaper, the great bill-brokers, would have cashed their paper in the way they

did almost without looking at it.

Still, although such influences are less avowed, personal character has its weight. Archibald Graysteel was a man of strictly religious habits; so strict, that he was not content with being a worshipper himself, but devoted all the leisure which his Sabbath opportunities afforded to the inoculation of others with his own religious views: he not only went to church twice on Sunday, but filled up the interval between morning and evening service by extemporaneous preaching on the suburban commons, greatly no doubt-to the edification of the crowds assembled there, until the public-houses opened. To reclaim sinners and set their feet in the right path, was an object he had so much at heart, that, had he followed the bent of his own inclinations, it is more than probable he would have gone about doing the same amount of good on every week-day as well; but, as he was heard to say with a sigh, there were worldly duties which he was compelled to perform, "being also placed here for that purpose ;' and, impressed with this conviction, he did not fail to improve each shining

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business-hour. Some people thought that Archibald Graysteel pushed his doctrinal views too far; but these were the careless herd, who set little store by mere formal church attendance, who did not consider Sabbath recreation sinful, and who could actually afford to be cheerful, and even hospitable, on the Lord's day. They were, however, in a decided minority in the conclaves where reputation is conferred, and, therefore, it mattered little to Archibald Graysteel what they chosed to think.

If William Handyside, the second partner in the firm, was a person of different temperament, it did not necessarily follow that he was less a man of business than his more sedate colleague. City men are fond of enterprise; not rashly urged, it is, they say, the great secret of commercial success. Now it was evident to the most superficial observer that William Handyside was bold and enterprising; but then it was equally clear that he was keen and shrewd. "You can't take him in," was a common expression; "he knows perfectly well what he's about," was the comment invariably made on William Handyside's speculation; "he'll never go too far with Archibald Graysteel at his elbow," was an assurance that passed like current coin in City circles. People liked William Handyside for his buoyancy, his briskness, his readiness, his unfailing spirits and good humour; they respected, and rather feared, Archibald Graysteel, for his austerity, his method, his taciturnity and closeness of disposition. The moral attributes of the firm were prudence and courage; "Festina lente" was its motto; and it prospered.

"It was

The foundation on which this prosperity was originally based was the only thing that the Wise Men of the East never exactly knew. Capital, of course," they said; but none of them could settle how much. Ah, if they had but known that, they might to use a phrase more often quoted than rightly applied-have "gone and done likewise!" Next to the art of making money for themselves, there is no secret would-be capitalists so earnestly desire to learn as that by which their rivals have become rich; it is also an intense satisfaction to them to be able to say they know how much such and such folks are worth. Commercially speaking, this is wise, because it regulates your own proceedings: you may be the wealthier and the safer for the knowledge. Yet it is not always wisdom that prompts the inquiry; curiosity has, very often, quite as much to do with it, and that sort of self-glorification which shines by the reflexion of other people's splendour. But whether the world that is centred between old London-wall and the Thames were careful or curious, they gleaned nothing from the revelations of " Graysteel and Handyside.' There they were, turning money in Blasing-lane, turning money in Gammonbury Buildings: great houses went down with a crash, but "Graysteel and Handyside" stood firm; if there were gluts in the market, they were able to wait; if there was a scarcity of produce, they were ready with the supply, if not with the thing itself, at all events with its equivalent.

So widely did their transactions spread, that it seemed as if the warehouses in the London Docks had been solely built for their convenience, to store the multifarious objects in which it was their pleasure no less than their profit to deal. There was nothing you could name that the firm of Graysteel and Handyside had not a dock-warrant for. Everything that had a price anywhere and was destined for ultimate sale, came

within their all-embracing grasp. They had watched the moment, no doubt, when markets were dull to speculate in values that were neglected. There is always "a good time coming" for holders, provided you can wait for it; if not-if sales must even be forced-having bought with judgment, you may consent to a sacrifice which will still leave you a gainer. It must have been on this principle that "Graysteel and Handyside" acted, or they would hardly have been willing to part with so many inestimable warrants to the astute but accommodating house of Godsend, Stiff, and Soaper, who were never known to give more than money's worth for the objects of their traffic, bill-brokers, as a general rule, not being optimists. That "Graysteel and Handyside" were able to redeem the warrants thus pledged, whenever it became necessary to do so, must have arisen from the fact that the capricious wheel of commerce turned very opportunely in their favour, giving them the chance, just when they wanted it, of realising in some other of the many commodities which they made it their practice to hold. But however this might be, "Graysteel and Handyside" always floated on the crest of the wave, and if there was one firm more than another in which the house of Godsend, Stiff, and Soaper placed their bill-brokering confidence, it was theirs. It is true that circumstances now and then occurred which might, with simpler folks, have put a stop to this pleasant commercial see-saw-for in trade as in love, the course does not invariably run smooth; but Messrs. Godsend, Stiff, and Soaper, who were quite as wise as serpents, if not altogether as harmless as doves, saw their way to their profit, and was not that enough?

To me these matters are, and always have been, a mystery; but then how should I know anything of the rules by which the transactions of millionnaires are regulated? I, whom the income-tax just manages to seize and sear! Sufficient for me if the milkman, as he is called, does not clamour at my gate for the sixpennyworth of chalk and water that furnishes his weekly supply! Nevertheless, I have an opinion, which I will communicate as privately as the circulation of these pages will permit. It is that the millionnaire who winks at fraudulent practices so long as they do not injure him, is very nearly as deeply-dyed a criminal as the vendor of chalk-and-water instead of milk, and perhaps he does quite as much harm to public morality.

I have drifted somehow into a sort of explanation of the modus operundi by which the firm of Graysteel and Handyside contrived to deal so extensively and get on so swimmingly; but in case I should not have made my meaning perfectly clear, I may as well make a clean breast of it, and confess that the dock-warrants which they so freely circulated, and on which they succeeded in raising such large sums of money, were, one and all of them, fictitious. A small capital will do to begin with when you can create as much as you please by a mere stroke of the pen. "Graysteel and Handyside" commenced their original system of operations with something infinitesimally small, and yet it proved quite enough for their purpose, for at the end of six years, or thereabouts, they found themselves the proprietors of a circulating medium, of their own manufacture, which represented a value of half a million of money. What their assets were, in the event of being obliged to have recourse to cash payments, it is scarcely worth while to inquire. They never took

the trouble to do so, but "pushed on," as William Handyside said, trusting to the chapter of accidents.

What would a great many of the Wise Men of the East have given for a knowledge of this system, provided it could always have been kept a secret? The answer might possibly have a tendency to shake the confidence in City men of opulent writers like myself, so I refrain from giving one. It is more to the purpose of this story to show how long the secret was kept in the case of "Graysteel and Handyside." I am inclined to think it might have endured for ever- -with the concurrence of Messrs. Godsend, Stiff, and Soaper-if they had not, I must say imprudently, resolved to embark in something real. Perhaps they were, in a manner, forced into this line of business by the necessity of having something substantial to show in case of the worst; perhaps it was only an extension of the speculating mania, the furor ludendi which, when once you are bitten by it, you can never refrain from; but, whatever the cause, "Graysteel and Handyside" went at it on their usual magnificent scale, gave a couple of hundred thousand pounds, in bills and so forth, for an overwhelming distillery on the banks of the Thames, and went on flourishing in a more flourishing way than ever.

CHAPTER II.

HOW TO DO BUSINESS.

If I were asked to express any idea of the worst description of punishment reserved for our misdeeds in a future state, I should define it to consist in a sense of utter loneliness, with every tie of previous association severed, with a consciousness only of being disconnected from all living souls.

Could such isolation exist on earth, it might, in some cases, be the very reverse of punishment; but it never happens in this world; none are so absolutely alone as not to have some friend or relative whose heart does not throb to hear of their success or failure.

Archibald Graysteel and William Handyside were neither of them exceptions to this general rule, each having families, to say nothing of friends.

Archibald Graysteel was a widower, with an only daughter, a beautiful girl about nineteen years of age, by name Euphemia. William Handyside had a wife and several children, the eldest of whom, Arthur, was a fine young man of three-and-twenty. The country houses of both the members of the firm were near each other, some six or seven miles from town, and intercourse between the families was frequent. It would have been still more intimate had it depended on Mrs. Handyside, who was extremely fond of Euphemia Graysteel, but the habits of her father were not naturally social, and he kept his daughter at home a great deal more than his friendly neighbours wished. Not enough, however, for the prevention of that consequence which is almost inevitable when least desirable.

In the eyes of the world, who saw the well mounted establishment of Mr. Handyside and the less pretentious but equally comfortable entourage of Mr. Graysteel, who heard what vast enterprises they conducted,