ears like the voice of thunder. Cloudesley trembled. For some moments he was speechless. It was easy to perceive that he repented the having placed himself in my presence, exposed himself to hear the bitterness of my reproaches, the confounding truths I set before him, the measure of retaliation to which I was

driven. By degrees he recovered his self-possession and firmness.

It is useless, he said, to consider how far I have myself wandered from the path of integrity and virtue. I am deeply conscious of the wrong I have committed, and for years have steeped the recollection in the hot and bitter tears of repentance. The past is beyond our power. It can no more be reversed, than the calamities and crimes that occurred myriads of years before we were called into existence. The future is the empire of the human will; and I am most anxious to atone for the errors of the past by the rectitude of what is to come.

It belongs neither to you nor to me, to decide in what position the youth under my care, your nephew, will be most happy. According to the laws of all civilised communities he has, rights, which we are not entitled to supersede. Let him be invested in those rights, and the principal part of our task, as it relates to him, will have been performed. He has perhaps no friend on the face of the globe but myself. At least, to me his person, his claims, his position in society, are confided. I live but for this object; I have no other passion. My days and nights, my thoughts waking and sleeping, my exertions, my journeys by sea and land, are devoted to this. I will never relax from this sacred undertaking; no motive, no temptation, no bribe, shall turn me aside; and I feel in my inmost heart that it shall be accomplished. He shall be publicly known and acknowledged as baron Alton and earl Danvers; he shall be the

lord of this domain, and of the still more splendid mansion in the isle of Axholme.

I shook my head expressively, in rejection of his proposals, and in disregard of his threats.

It is well, said he. What I desired was, that we should act together in the accomplishment of this holy purpose. Together we contrived, and together perpetrated, an unheard-of crime. It was my most earnest wish that we should have cooperated in the generous restoration of the youth we have injured. We have done that, which, if known, would blast our characters in the judgment of all honourable men, nay, of all men, whether virtuous or profligate. It is in our power, uncompelled, of our own free will, by our spontaneous act, to set right that in which we have offended, and to shew that there is in us a principle and spring of justice and truth.

But, if I cannot have your assistance, that shall not turn me from my purpose. In what manner I shall proceed to effect it, as yet I know not. I will not act without mature deliberation, and without much advice. But I will not rest. My proceeding shall be as rapid, as my plan shall be well-digested and firm. Do not therefore for a moment imagine yourself secure. Your ruin shall come when you least expect. Like a thief in the night, it shall take you unawares and unprepared. And, as you refuse to accept, what is now offered you, honour in the event that is to be effected, be assured that I shall entertain no consideration for your feelings, and no forbearance as to the consequences that will follow to your fortune or your peace!

He said all this with a passion and an impetuosity that carried him out of himself. It was like a horse in the full career of his speed, who has the bridle thrown on his neck, and whom

neither rocks, nor declivities, nor barriers, nor seas can stop in his course.-Having spoken, he burst from my presence, and quitted the mansion and park where I resided.

I remained for some time motionless, stunned with the scene in which I had been a partaker. What a thing is guilt! I had been pressed down to the earth by the series of calamities that had occurred within my domestic circle. And here came the visit of a man, who was like a savage that had broken loose from the woods, or like Polyphemus, when Ulysses and his companions had unwarily entered his cave, who, having no consideration for the unparalleled sufferings his victims had for years endured, thought only of his own object, and the accomplishment of his unrelenting purpose.

I sat still, and was helpless. I waited one day, and another day, expecting when my adversary would make his second appearance. I dared do nothing, fearful of the consequences