he had positively withdrawn his favour from Cunningham, who had the
most to expect from his patronage. Between these opposite difficulties,
notwithstanding the urgent excitations of Mrs. Falconer, the poor
commissioner could not bring himself to decide, till the time for action
was past.

Another blow came upon him for which he was wholly unprepared--there
arrived from abroad accounts of the failure of a secret expedition; and the
general in his despatches named Colonel John Falconer as the officer to
whose neglect of orders he principally attributed the disappointment. It
appeared that orders had been sent to have his regiment at a certain place
at a given hour. At the moment these orders came, Colonel John Falconer was
out on a shooting party without leave. The troops, of course, on which the
general had relied, did not arrive in time, and all his other combinations
failed from this neglect of discipline and disobedience of orders. Colonel
Falconer was sent home to be tried by a court-martial.

"I pity you, sir," said Lord Oldborough, as Commissioner Falconer, white
as ashes, read in his presence these despatches--"I pity you, sir, from my
soul: here is no fault of yours--the fault is mine."

It was one of the few faults of this nature which Lord Oldborough had
ever committed. Except in the instance of the Falconer family, none could
name any whom his lordship had placed in situations, for which they
were inadequate or unfit. Of this single error he had not foreseen the
consequences; they were more important, more injurious to him and to the
public, than he could have calculated or conceived. It appeared now as if
the Falconer family were doomed to be his ruin. That the public knew, in
general, that John Falconer had been promoted by ministerial favour, Lord
Oldborough was aware; but he imagined that the peculiar circumstances of