been a bright gem sparkling in a royal
court, instead of a sickly lamp beaming in a monument."

Sedley wept. "You know," said he, "what side I have espoused; yet a mind
so magnanimous must be candid; nor will you confound the errors and
prejudices of early education with the turpitude of guilt. I was tutored
by one who passionately worshipped civil and religious liberty; a man
whose heart was generous and sincere as your own, and only mistook the
means by which the desired objects were attainable. He now deeply mourns
the enormous oppression which has originated from what he deemed perfect
theories. Filial duty, joined to the instructions of my preceptor, made
me join the Parliamentary army. You are a father. Think what agonies you
would feel had your son refused to obey you, and falsified the hopes you
had formed of his acting as your associate in what you deemed the career
of glory."

"Cease, dearest Sedley," cried Isabel, "his weak frame cannot bear these
strong emotions." "I have a son," said the agonized Evellin, "and he
refused to obey me. He has falsified the hopes I entertained, that he
would be the restorer of my house. Sedley, I would exchange sons with
thy father. Come nearer, and I will tell thee what will make thee
renounce the traitor who gave thee birth. Hast thou ever heard of thy
uncle Allan Neville, the man from whom thy father stole his coronet and
lands?"

"I have heard," said Sedley, "that he was unfortunate, very criminal,
and long since dead."

"Unfortunate indeed," returned the Colonel, "but neither dead nor
criminal. I am Allan Neville, a living witness of thy father's crimes,
the least of which is usurpation. I accuse him as the foul slanderer of
my fame, as the inhuman villain who betrayed my confidence. He knew my
woes, my wants, my dependence on his friendship; nay, that I trusted to
him only. He smiled, promised, cajoled, and destroyed me. My daughter
has told me that thou art warm, ingenuous, sincere, and affectionate.
Such, at thy age, was he that now lies before thee, the victim of thy
mother's ambition and thy father's hypocrisy."

Sedley tried to conceal the burning blushes of shame with his hands,
while his recollection of past circumstances confirmed his uncle's
accusation. Ambition was the crime of both his parents; hypocrisy the
means used by the cautious Lord Bellingham in seeking to compass those
ends which his bolder consort pursued with the effrontery of determined
versa