estowed on her husband. Many
circumstances led him to fear that mutual guilt was the only bond which
kept them from separation, as they often hinted in their quarrels that
they were equally in each other's power for some punishable offences;
and once, in an ungovernable transport of rage, Lady Bellingham bade her
trembling Lord "remember her brother." These recollections made it
impossible for Sedley to doubt the criminality of his parents,
especially as their accuser was Colonel Evellin, whose gallantry and
unquestioned honour had extorted alike the terror and admiration of his
enemies. And was the admirable Isabel the victim of their crimes, who
now, in all the unaffected loveliness of tender duty, wiped the cold dew
from the face of her agonized father, beseeching him to consider his
weakness, and forbear convulsing his tortured limbs by these mental
throes, still assuring him, that if she could preserve his life, her own
would be worth valuing?

Impelled by that homage which virtuous emulation ever pays to
acknowledged worth, Sedley knelt by the side of Isabel. "Here," said he,
"I devote myself to your service, and abjure your enemies, though my
heart recoils when I consider who they are. In this sacred, this aweful
abode, I drop all titles but that of your kinsman: now for your dear
daughter's sake, listen to the intelligence I come to disclose; you are
in the most imminent danger, and prompt measures for your security must
be devised. I will never more participate in the guilt of those who
wronged you, or partake of those luxuries which proved irresistible
temptations to those who caused your ruin. Suffer me to supply the place
of your lost Eustace, and to relieve the pious duties of your daughter.
You shall then know that my immediate progenitors have not corrupted
that pure blood which I, with you, derive from one common stock of
eminent ancestors, distinguished alike by fidelity to their friends,
their country, and their King."

Isabel scarcely waited for the reconciling embrace, which proved that
her generous father knew not his own heart when he thought it capable of
eternal enmity to the blood of De Vallance. Her transport at seeing the
two dearest objects in the world known and esteemed by each other, was
allayed by her eager anxiety to know what Sedley meant by imminent
danger. He now disclosed what had passed between him and Morgan, and the
discovery himself had made of another and nearer asylum for the