Weary on these law-suits!--terminate as they may, they invariably end by sucking away the very life-blood of the fools who rush into them. In the case to which I allude, the unfortunate defendant had not the poor satisfaction of living to see the discomfiture which he had prepared for his assailants. The daily watch for ruin, still deferred, was to him as sickening as ever was the watch for hope under like circumstances; and he died ere it came, leaving his curse among his adversaries on an average, and his strong injunction to Connell to hold out against them all--an injunction he was by no means inclined to disobey; for, now that he had undertaken the job, he was as eager to see out the fun as if he had himself originally concocted it, not to speak of the snug homesteads which he and his gang possessed on the sole tenure of their resistance to all intruders. Accordingly, no sooner had he disposed of the mortal remains of his defunct employer, than he betook himself with almost religious zeal to obey his behests, by strengthening himself against the storm which he foresaw would soon burst upon him. The mansion-house was a strong substantial building, and there, with a judgment that would have been creditable to the most eminent general who ever conquered on a field of battle, he removed his head-quarters, and proceeded to lay in such stores of food, arms, and ammunition as would enable him to meet the danger in a manner worthy of the stake he was playing for. It is needless to paint the dismay which these bold arrangements scattered through the camps of the various claimants, who thus, at the very moment when each congratulated himself upon the immediate prospect of snatching the prize which the operation of nature, anticipating that of law, had thrown into his hands, found this unexpected and formidable opponent start up in their path, with his audacious pretensions, so audaciously, but at the same time so seriously supported. Had there been anything like confidence among them, their co-operation might probably have effected his expulsion; but it was not without reason that the cunning freebooter reckoned upon their mutual distrust precluding the possibility of such a coalition. Each of course sought to make terms with him; and with each, of course, he coquetted as naturally as if he had been bred, born, and reared in the best society, but in vain each importuned him to give up the possession--to all such demands he returned the same modest answer, “Truly it would not become an ignorant simple man like him to pretend to settle a question which puzzled the judges themselves. As soon as the rightful owner was declared, he would be ready to quit in his favour; but until then, it was his duty to keep all out with perfect impartiality.”