Great was the astonishment of the Earl of Trimmerstone at receiving the following letter from Horatio Markham:

When the above letter arrived at Trimmerstone, his lordship was busily engaged in inspecting the progress of the operatives at the old hall.

Part of the building had been promptly made fit for his lordship’s residence; and as his establishment was now very small, he was not reluctant to use the contracted residence assigned to him. We have already intimated that the Earl of Trimmerstone was depressed in spirits: it is indeed very natural that he should be. The life which he had led, the companions with whom he had associated, the disappointments which he had experienced, his foolish marriage, the disgraceful conduct of his silly countess, the taunts and reproaches of his opulent relative, the weariness and disgust that he felt in having nothing to do, and the annoyance of an empty title, which merely mocked him with the epithet of Right Honorable, all these things combined to render him almost disgusted with, and weary of life.

In this humor he went to Trimmerstone, and took up his abode at the miserable old hall. The gloom of the building was quite in unison with the feelings of his mind, and he very contentedly set himself down to lament over the vanity of life, and to make amends for his past transgressions by growling right surlily at the sins of others. His solitude was soon invaded by a visit from the rector of Trimmerstone, who was rather fanatical in his theology, and finical in attire and address. Neither of these qualities were, in the first instance, agreeable to his lordship; but the Rev. Marmaduke Sprout had the capacity for flattery in a very high degree. He could presently render himself agreeable to any person of exalted rank by his very courteous and conciliating demeanour; and he possessed a peculiar softness and gentleness of manner, with which indeed the Earl of Trimmerstone would, in his past days of cock-fighting, horse-racing, and boxing, have been thoroughly disgusted. But his lordship was quite an altered man. He did not exactly know what was the matter with himself, till Mr. Sprout introduced to his fretful and fidgetty lordship the subject of fanaticism. That became an excellent antistagnator, and set all his fancies and vagaries at work in quite an opposite direction to that which they had hitherto taken. Formerly, the lowest pursuits under the name of sport or fancy had been agreeable to his lordship; and every species of religious sentiment he had regarded with the profoundest contempt and the most unmingled abhorrence. But now he was sick, and weary of all these things; and because one extreme was purely offensive and wearisome, he took it for granted that the opposite must be truly delightful and highly consistent, and so under the tuition of Mr. Sprout, he changed and reversed all his habits, good, bad, and indifferent. From staking thousands at a horse-race, he turned up his eyes at the grievous abomination of half-crown whist; and, indeed, had he been disposed to card-playing, he could not have indulged himself at Trimmerstone, for Mr. Sprout had banished almost all card-playing from the place, so that there was not a pack of cards in the parish, except two or three mutilated well-thumbed packs of quadrille-cards, which were still used by a knot of antiquated spinsters worthy of the good old days of Sacheverel and High Church. Quadrille-cards will not do for whist, for all the eights, nines and tens are thrown out. Formerly, Lord Trimmerstone used to be proud of giving some of his acquaintance a sumptuous dinner; but now he had changed all that, and he only kept one female cook, who could just manage to make a comfortable and snug little dish or two for his lordship’s own self, occasionally assisted by the Rev. Mr. Sprout. Formerly, his lordship had been disposed to be lively, and oftentimes facetious; but now he was prodigiously grave, and almost sulky. Formerly, his lordship never went to church; now he went twice every Sunday, and said Amen as loud as the clerk, and with much more solemnity, for the clerk did not turn up his eyes for fear of losing the place. Formerly, his lordship had been very candid; now he had become exceedingly censorious, and he seemed to measure his religion by the severity with which he reproved transgressors. His lordship several times attempted to make all the inhabitants of Trimmerstone go to church twice every Sunday, except his own cook. But in this his lordship could not succeed, and indeed it was well for him that he could not; for if he had, the church would have been so crowded that he could not have enjoyed a great, large, lined, stuffed, padded, carpeted pew for himself.

Though Lord Trimmerstone was a zealous convert to Mr. Sprout’s theory of the national religion, yet that theory was not quite obvious and distinct to his lordship’s apprehension; and often did he blunder in the enunciation of his theory, and awkwardly did he sometimes express himself when he thought he was contending for the truth: for he has been known to rebuke the unepiscopal worshippers in barns and outhouses for holding the pestilential doctrines of election and predestination. This was pardonable in a young beginner; but Mr. Sprout set him right, and showed that the doctrines of predestination and election had been sometimes erroneously apprehended to mean predestination and election, whereas the proper view of the subject was that they meant election and predestination.

That part of fanaticism which consists in gloominess and moroseness, his lordship could manage to admiration; for he was thoroughly disgusted with every thing and every body. We cannot resist the inclination to observe in this part of our narrative, how very just and appropriate a punishment is fanaticism for gross immorality. When the mind has spurned the meeker and gentler bonds of religious principle and conscientious thought, it is rightly punished by the withering rigors of fanaticism, and the gloomy terrors of superstition. Under these influences was now lying the Earl of Trimmerstone. And he was engaged in conversation with the Rev. Marmaduke Sprout, when there was delivered into his lordship’s hands the above-mentioned letter of Horatio Markham.

His lordship made the apology usual on such occasions, and forthwith opened and read Markham’s letter. As soon as the reading was finished, his lordship said, “This is very honorable conduct in Mr. Markham.”

Then handing the letter to Mr. Sprout, he said, “Read this letter, sir, and let me have your advice, how I ought to act under present circumstances.”

The reverend gentleman took the letter bowing, and perused it with great attention, and returned to his lordship with another bow, and a smile of satisfaction at being let into a great man’s confidence; and said,

“Really, my lord, I hardly know how to advise. Cases do sometimes occur in which there is a great deal of difficulty, and this appears to me to be one of them.”

By this speech, though delivered with the solemnity of an oracle, very little information was communicated to his lordship. When people ask for advice, they should, in order to save their friends a great deal of trouble, state explicitly what sort of advice they wish to have. It is for want of this honesty and explicitness that so much good advice is continually thrown away.

His lordship was now fairly puzzled and perplexed. It was necessary to send some answer to the communication of Markham; and his lordship had discernment enough to perceive that this gentleman was truly a scrupulous and conscientious man. The present transaction proved that fact abundantly. For nine hundred and ninety-nine persons out of a thousand would, without much if any hesitation, have accepted the legacy in question. That feeling in Markham, to which some persons might be inclined to give the name of moral prudery, prevented him from availing himself of a decided error; and on the other hand, his dislike of ostentatious magnanimity and heroics placed him in an unpleasant situation in making an offer of surrendering the legacy.

Notwithstanding the various lectures and the great and clear information which Mr. Sprout had communicated to Lord Trimmerstone, concerning those views of religion most suitable to fanaticism, his lordship was but imperfectly initiated: therefore, when he had read Markham’s letter, and handed it over to Mr. Sprout for his perusal also, his lordship could not help observing,

“This is really very meritorious conduct in Mr. Markham, there is not one man in a thousand who would have acted thus under these circumstances.”

To this Mr. Sprout very seriously and solemnly replied, “Your lordship will excuse me, but I must observe that there is nothing meritorious in human actions.”

“Mr. Sprout,” said his lordship, “I will not contend with you for a word; but you must grant, that notwithstanding the supreme importance of faith, which I am quite ready to allow, there is a great difference in human actions, and that some conduct is better than other. There are multitudes who have not faith who frequently perform virtuous actions, and live according to the principles of morality.”

The clergyman shook his head, and said, “Mere heathen morality.”

“And that,” replied Lord Trimmerstone, “is better than no morality at all.”

It could not be entertaining to our readers to pursue the long and elaborate arguments by which the rector of Trimmerstone attempted to prove that virtue was of no value but of great importance. We therefore proceed with our narrative.

When the discussion was concluded, and his lordship was abundantly convinced that he knew nothing about the matter, he directed his thoughts to the subject of Markham’s letter: and as the divine had given all the advice upon the business which he was able to give, he took his leave; and the Earl of Trimmerstone remained alone to consult with his own thoughts.

All that his lordship could think was, that this conduct of Markham was very handsome. But that was not enough. It would not be a very satisfactory answer to Markham should his lordship say merely that such conduct was very handsome. After much deliberation, his lordship came to the conclusion, that it would be best to have an interview with Markham on the subject, and to make inquiry into all the particulars, resolving to compel the barrister to the acceptance of as much as he could force upon him.

With this view his lordship sent to Markham an immediate acknowledgment of the receipt of his communication, proposing at the same time a meeting with him for the purpose of entering into the particulars of the affair; for Markham’s letter had not sufficiently to his lordship’s apprehension explained the cause and nature of the error in the will.

Markham’s letter to Signora Rivolta received also an immediate answer, and that answer was decisive. The lady, after complimenting the barrister for his very honorable conduct, said, that it was quite out of the question that she or her family could have, according to the laws of England, any claim whatever on any part of the property, save that which was literally and expressly bequeathed to them; and that if any remained unappropriated or unclaimed, the only person who had aught to do with it must of course be the heir-at-law.

Thus it seemed that the business was brought into a small compass, resting only between Markham and Lord Trimmerstone. And though his lordship’s moral susceptibility might not have been quite so acute and delicate as Markham’s, yet when such an appeal as this was made to his feelings, he could not but entertain some thoughts of disinterestedness: for the disinterestedness of the residuary-legatee was so powerful, as to excite in his lordship’s mind a degree of sympathy and a corresponding feeling.