t the hour of his
restoration to all these blessings, he must have been a monster who
could have withheld cordial forgiveness from a humiliated miserable
enemy. Eustace visited the man who had doomed him to a premature grave,
with a sincere desire to prolong his life, and restore his peace. To the
relief afforded by a conviction that the guilt of his nephew's murder
did not lie upon his soul, De Vallance received the additional
consolation of knowing that his own son was alive, and acknowledged by
Eustace as a most beloved friend and future brother. The forgiveness of
Neville, and the assurance of his powerful intercession with the King in
his favour, changed the horrors of the wretched man into transports of
joy. Lost to all nobler feelings, and penitent only from terror,
apprehensions of the future had increased the sickness which fatigue and
anxiety had occasioned, and his recovery was expedited by the confidence
he now felt, that he should be permitted to spend the remnant of his
days in security, protected by the virtues of the son whom he had
neglected, and the clemency of the victims he had wronged.

CHAP. XXVIII.

All friends shall taste
The wages of their virtues, and all foes
The cup of their deservings.

Shakspeare.

The restoration of the King was speedily followed by the re-instatement
of Neville in his family-honours, and the marriage of his son and
daughter. Mrs. Mellicent had the unspeakable satisfaction of arranging
the ceremony, selecting the dress of the brides, and ordering the
nuptial banquet. History does not warrant me in adding, that she
afterwards consummated the happiness of Dr. Lloyd, by completing the
liberal tokens of regard which his grateful friends showered upon him.
But whether this was owing to her own obduracy, or to somewhat of that
enmity which often subsists between professors of the same liberal art,
I have no means of discovering. It is certain that they continued to be
sincere friends, which possibly might not have been the case if Mrs.
Mellicent's confidence in the superiority of her own cordials and
ointments to the recipes prescribed by the regularly educated
practitioner, had not induced her to pass on, "in maiden meditation
fancy free," preferring the privileges of "blessed singleness" to the
mortification of subscribing to the efficacy of those medical nostrums
which were not found in