e, his terrible heart broken by
failure and fatigue, and his body laid by Drake's beneath the far-off
tropic seas.

And if, at the close of her eventful life, one gleam of sunshine opened
for a while, when her boy Richard returned to her bosom from his Spanish
prison, to be knighted for his valor, and made a privy councillor for
his wisdom; yet soon, how soon, was the old cloud to close in again
above her, until her weary eyes should open in the light of Paradise.
For that son dropped dead, some say at the very council-table, leaving
behind him naught but broken fortunes, and huge purposes which never
were fulfilled; and the stormy star of that bold race was set forever,
and Lady Hawkins bowed her weary head and died, the groan of those
stolen negroes ringing in her ears, having lived long enough to see her
husband's youthful sin become a national institution, and a national
curse for generations yet unborn.

I know not why she opened her heart that night to Adrian Gilbert, with
a frankness which she would hardly have dared to use to her own family.
Perhaps it was that Adrian, like his great brothers, Humphrey and
Raleigh, was a man full of all lofty and delicate enthusiasms, tender
and poetical, such as women cling to when their hearts are lonely; but
so it was; and Adrian, half ashamed of his own ambitious dreams, sate
looking at her a while in silence; and then--

"The Lord be with you, dearest lady. Strange, how you women sit at home
to love and suffer, while we men rush forth to break our hearts and
yours against rocks of our own seeking! Ah well! were it not for
Scripture, I should have thought that Adam, rather than Eve, had been
the one who plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree."

"We women, I fear; did the deed nevertheless; for we bear the doom of it
our lives long."

"You always remind me, madam, of my dear Mrs. Leigh of Burrough, and her
counsels."

"Do you see her often? I hear of her as one of the Lord's most precious
vessels."

"I would have done more ere now than see her," said he with a blush,
"had she allowed me: but she lives only for the memory of her husband
and the fame of her noble sons."

As he spoke the door opened, and in walked, wrapped in his rough
sea-gown, none other than one of those said noble sons.

Adrian turned pale.

"Amyas Leigh! What brings you hither? how fares my brother? Where is the
ship?"

"Your brother is well, Mr. Gilbert. The Golden Hind is gone on to
Dartm