With this view he led Mr. Percy to speak of the shipwreck, and of M. de
Tourville. Lord Oldborough's attention was immediately awakened; and when
Mr. Falconer perceived that the regret for not having seen M. de Tourville,
and the curiosity to know the nature of his secret negotiations had been
sufficiently excited, the commissioner quitted the subject, as he could go
no farther whilst restrained by Mr. Percy's presence. He took the first
opportunity of leaving the room with his lordship's nephew, Col. Hauton, to
look at some horses, which were to run at the ensuing races.

Left alone with Mr. Percy, Lord Oldborough looked less reserved, for he
plainly saw, indeed Mr. Percy plainly showed, that he had nothing to ask
from the great man, but that he came only to see his friend.

"Many years since we met, Mr. Percy," said his lordship, sitting down and
placing his chair for the first time without considering whether his face
or his back were to the light.--"A great many years since we met, Mr.
Percy; and yet I should not think so from your appearance; you do not look
as if--shall I say it?--five-and-twenty years had passed since that time.
But you have been leading an easy life in the country--the happiest life: I
envy you."

Mr. Percy, thinking that these were words of course, the mere polite _cant_
of a courtier to a country gentleman, smiled, and replied, that few who
were acquainted with their different situations in the world would imagine
that Mr. Percy could be an object of envy to Lord Oldborough, a statesman
at the summit of favour and fortune.

"Not the summit," said Lord Oldborough, sighing; "and if I were even at
the summit, it is, you know, a dangerous situation. Fortune's wheel never
stands still--the highest point is therefore the most perilous." His