During an interval of three or four weeks, the period during which Captain Flint was on his excursion to Heathcot, no occurrences of importance to this history appear in Miss Cowley's letters to her friend. It is my duty to supply this chasm by detailing a few particulars relative to Mr. Horace Hardcastle's situation and pursuits, these being so immediately connected with the thread of the narrative as to claim attention. The young nobleman, his friend, with whom he went abroad, continued gradually to yield to the slow, but fatal malady which had so long menaced the hopes of his family. Intervals of comparative ease, with that flow of spirits which commonly attends this disease, and which was further sustained by his patience and principles, had, from time to time, beguiled him in the course of his unprofitable search after health. He became weary of the sea, and disgusted by the confinement of a ship's cabin; and he expressed much reluctance to quitting Lisbon, where he had wintered. His friends about him strongly recommended to him a retreat from the heat of the summer, which was within their reach, and the accustomed resort of the society to which he was attached and endeared. Doctor Innes, his tutor, convinced of the inutility of the many cruises he had patiently submitted to undertake, and the necessity of amusing his mind, immediately secured, in this delightful asylum, a convenient house for his reception, to which the family repaired in the early months of the summer.