In becoming a man of letters, and taking that branch of letters which fell to him, he obtained the special place that was fitted for him.

He was a round peg in a round hole.

There was no other hole which he would have fitted nearly so well.

But he had his moment of political ambition, like others,--and paid a thousand pounds for his attempt.
In 1857 the first number of _The Virginians_ appeared, and the last,--the twenty-fourth,--in October, 1859.

This novel, as all my readers are aware, is a continuance of _Esmond_, and will be spoken of in its proper place.