CHAPTER X. "AND how felt he, the wretched man, From boyhood's hour, that instant came Fresh o'er him, and he wept-he wept!"-MOORE. On the same day that Robert Scarborough went to London, and the day after the conference of Manchester and Vansant, Lord Scarborough was sitting in his private chamber, his eyes fixed upon the few coals that sparkled in the fire-place, and thoughtless of what was before or around him, so deeply was he in that state expressed by the Latins in the phrase: "Cogitationibus inhærens." It was night, and a taper burned flickeringly upon a table near his elbow, casting his shadow upon the wall, and that looked as gloomily and as troubled as its original. Even in the represented lips a slight tremor might have been noticed, now and then; for the old man ignorantly spoke in an inaudible tone with himself. The hour was one of trying heaviness to his feelings. He was endeavoring to reconcile himself to the conduct of his son, and no doubt found it the most vexatious thing to perform that he had ever undertaken. He was a man who valued his honor as highly as his life, and his name he loved as dearly as his own soul. He felt in the union of his son and the cottager's daughter an eternal disgrace alighting upon him and upon his family; he imagined a reproach had fallen which no time or circumstance could ever eradicate. The affection for his wife, the paternal affection for his child, that increased in absence, and the little real virtue in the heart yet living, waged a furious warfare with his worldly-mindedness, and was overcoming by degrees the strong resolutions made in a moment of wrathfulness-alas! too thoughtlessly, too inconsiderately, too harshly. By and by a light footstep broke his killing reverie, and a small hand gently touched his shoulder. Presently a large tear-drop fell upon his care-traced face. It was his wife! Putting her arms about his neck as she was wont to do in the blissful days of early connubial affection, she said: "Are you not willing yet, my lord, to receive Robert as a son? When last we talked together, you promised that after a careful consideration of the matter, you would answer me more directly. Tell me, adored husband, may he not again be favored with a reconciliation—with a father's blessing and a mother's love?" The old man spake not; yet it was obvious that emotions of varied description were commingling and effervescing in his heated bosom. His trembling frame shook the old arm-chair in which he sat, and his wife, fearing that a sudden illness had come upon him, was about to inquire the cause, when a gush of repentant tears, the first he had shed since childhood, as much relieved himself as surprised his wife. Rising, he embraced her, saying: "Yes, yes, for your sake do I forgive my offending child; for your sake do I recall the curses that I have heaped upon him." May the question be put: "Is it in accordance with the will of God for thee, old man, to revoke thy oaths? After thou, in the face of high Heaven, hast sworn to make an impassable abyss between thee and thy offspring, is it not painful to thy very nature, to falsify such important protestations ?” These are no doubt the interrogations which Lord Scarborough demanded of himself, and this accounts for his distress of mind. Fortunately, he hit upon the best and only mode of getting under, conscientiously, the tangible controversy-the only balm for his feelings--the only excuse for his deviation from right, namely, that of repent ance. Persuaded that he sinned not in repealing that which he was never justifiable in saying, and that his great, his exceeding wrong, was centred in the beginning, when, regardless of consequences, he violated one of Christ's blessed commandments: "Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: "But I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. "Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black." "Yes, yes, sweet wife! thank God, the storm has past! I feel that a mighty burthen has rolled from my soul, giving me sweet relief. I am now ready to embrace my son-even Robert, my wronged, afflicted child. I care not for name, rank, or fortune. I live only to see him again, to tell him that I am his father still!" "Thank you thank Heaven!" was the only reply of the joyful mother. "Thank the devil, will you? However, you will not have the opportunity of seeing, much less embracing, the young man ; or I am vastly mistaken or a fool -one," said Manchester, sliding away to another apart-ment, exulting in the mischief which he had planned, fully satisfied that at that very hour it was working its blasting effects upon his hapless victims. Early on the following morning, an epistle was forwarded to Robert, bearing the information that his father was willing to receive him again to his fireside as a son, and his wife as a daughter. The old man, laboring with a mania, the fruits of an unpleasant vision, a visitant of the preceding night, commanded the messenger to go direct and return with all possible dispatch. In due time the horseman returned; but with what sensations did the master listen to the tale of woe which his servant related! His cup of agony that had for a long time been in creasing, was now full to overflowing. Calling a fresh horse, without tarrying to attend to any preliminary adjustments, he mounted the ready beast, and driving a spur deep in his flank, dashed away at full speed, with a resolution that faltered not, to find, if in the realm, his wretched son. Robert did not awake to full knowledge of his situation, until he felt himself being raised upon his feet by a stranger who, addressing him in kind accents, soon brought him to understand where and how he came to be there. The blow which had prostrated him was from a slung-shot, severe but not dangerous. For a while he stood motionless, seeming to consider what was best to do, or which the right way to go. Then remembering the dream-like transactions in which he had so lately been an unfortunate performer, he burst into tears, and with dishevelled hair and a small stream of blood trickling down his cheek, he turned abruptly from the kind stranger, and moved with rapid yet confused strides towards the suburbs of the city. Now, as he walked, never for once regarding the salutations of the passers by, who, wondering at his strange appearance, stopped awhile to look, he began to surmise that he might have made a mistake in the person of the unhappy lady, and that after all there may have been some error. This feeble hope inspiring him with new courage and strength, he mended his pace to a run, until he arrived at the place where he had stopped, when, without compensating the landlord, he hurried as fast as the swiftest speed of his long-eared donkey could carry him, in the di rection of his cottage. 2 |