Further information he stated himself to be unable, as yet, to afford; so poor Charters, though not of a temper to be threatened even by the king, was scared by the thought of his creditors, and gave up the letters of the Countess to Shirley. Impatiently he waited for the next _Gazette_; but on opening it, how great was his astonishment and rage to find the following notice:-- "1st Dragoon Guards. Cornet Frederick Shirley to be Lieutenant, _vice_ Charters, _who resigns_!" For some time he could scarcely believe his eyesight. Then he called for his horse and rode to the Horse Guards; but neither the Commander-in-Chief nor the military secretary would receive him, and for weeks he remained a prey to despair and mortification. He sought in vain for the perfidious Shirley, who kept sedulously out of his way, and had now left London. "My commission, the pride of my heart, was gone," said Charters with a sigh, as he concluded his story; "and by my own folly and extravagance, together with the active assistance of others, my fortune was nearly gone too. Friends disappeared as my purse emptied, and ere long I knew not what to do, or whither to turn me. "As for Shirley, my lieutenancy availed him but little, as he was dismissed from the service soon after for declining to _go out_ with a brother officer. Gradually he became a gambler, a blackleg--in fact, a common robber in London, and his fate was a fearful one; so in my heart, I now forgive him. "Was he executed?" I inquired. "Worse. His brother, Sir Jasper Shirley, being out of town, at his place in Hants, the household plate was lodged, as usual, at his banker's. It was valuable, for among it was a princely service he had received from the empress-queen when he was our Ambassador at Vienna; and when a sudden order came to the wary old butler, desiring him to get it all out, as Sir Jasper was returning to town, he showed the letter to my ci-devant friend, Fred Shirley, who said 'it was all right, as his brother would be in London to-morrow.' "The butler, however, still had his secret fears; and after bringing home the plate, borrowed from a friend a bulldog--a surly and savage brute of great strength and ferocity, which he chained to the chest over night. "Shortly before daybreak, a dreadful noise was heard in the apartment where the plate lay. Lights were procured--the butler and other servants hurried to the place, and found that a window had been forced by the usual implements of a housebreaker, who lay on the floor dead, but still warm, and in a pool of blood, for his throat and tongue were completely torn out by the fangs of the ferocious dog; and who think you he proved to be? Sir Jasper's younger brother--Frederick Shirley. "So," added Charters, through his clenched teeth, "so perished he who betrayed me!