ager to bestow. Have you forgotten this, Sir George?"

"No!" replied the Admiral, with sudden animation. "Often have I recalled
that day, one amongst the many in which my Charles distinguished
himself."

"And you told him he would rise to eminence ere many years had
passed--the name of Delmont would rival that of Nelson ere his career
had run."

The old Admiral looked on the stranger with increased astonishment and
agitation.

"Delmont! you knew my brother, then, Lieutenant Mordaunt," Mrs. Hamilton
could not refrain from saying. "Many, many years have passed, yet tell
me when you saw him last."

"I was with him in his last voyage, lady," replied the stranger, in a
low and peculiar voice, for it was evidently an effort to retain his
calmness. Six-and-twenty years have gone by since the Leander left the
coasts of England never to return; six-and-twenty years since I set foot
in my native land."

"And did all indeed perish, save yourself? Were you alone saved? saw you
my brother after the vessel sunk?" inquired Mrs. Hamilton, hurriedly,
laying her trembling hand on the stranger's arm, scarcely conscious of
what she did. "He too might be spared even as yourself; but oh, death
were preferable to lingering on his years in slavery."

"Alas! my Emmeline, wherefore indulge in such fallacious hope?" said her
husband, tenderly, for he saw she was excessively agitated.

"Mrs. Hamilton," said Sir George Wilmot, earnestly, speaking at the same
moment, "Emmeline, child of my best, my earliest friend, look on those
features, look well; do you not know them? six-and-twenty years have
done their work, yet surely not sufficiently to conceal him from your
eyes. Have you not seen that flashing eye, that curling lip before? look
well ere you decide."

"Lady, Charles Manvers lives!" murmured the stranger, in the voice of
one whom strong emotion deprived of utterance, and he pushed from his
brow the hair which thickly clustered there and in part concealed the
natural expression of his features, and gazed on her face. A gleam of
sunshine at this instant threw a sudden glow upon his countenance, and
Mr. Hamilton started forward, and an exclamation of astonishment, of
pleasure escaped his lips, but Mrs. Hamilton's eyes moved not from the
stranger's face.

"Emmeline, my sister, my own sister, will you not know me? can you not
believe that Charles is spared?" he exclaimed, in a tone of excited
feeling.

"Oh, God, it is Charles himsel