nt sight to look upon now, to what he
was the morning he sought me to commit a crime, which, well for my own
sake, and the sake of others, I did not commit. He came to me----"

"Mercy! mercy! I claim your Highness' mercy!" said Constantia, falling
on her knees, and holding her hands, clasped and trembling, above her
head. "It is not meet that the child hear thus publicly of her father's
sin! The old man, your Highness, has not power to speak!"

"Lady," continued Dalton, "he could not deny--But my tale will soon be
finished, and it will take a load off your heart, and off the hearts of
others. Sir Herbert did not die. I conveyed him to another land; but the
papers--the instructions I had received, remained in my possession. Sir
Herbert's wild character--his fondness for sea-excursions--his careless
life, led to the belief that he had perished in some freak, in which he
too often indulged. His brother apparently mourned and sorrowed; but, in
time, the dynasty of England changed, exactly as he would have wished
it--the Commonwealth soon gave the missing brother's lands to the man
who was its friend, who had fought and laboured in its cause, and seemed
to forget that any one else had any right to the possessions:--but the
son of the injured remained as a plague-spot to his sight. I had but too
good reason to know how this son of this elder brother was regarded, and
I had learned to love the lad: he was ever about the beach, and fond of
me, poor fellow! because I used to bring him little gifts from foreign
parts--by way, I suppose, of a private atonement for grievous wrong. I
took upon myself the removing of that boy to save him from a worse fate,
for I loved him as my own child; and there he stands, and can say
whether my plain speech be true or false. I was myself a father but a
little while before I spirited him away from a dangerous home to a safe
ship. Sir Robert believed they were both dead, and sorrowed not;
although he compassed only the removal of the brother, yet the going
away of his nephew made his possessions the more secure; for, as he
said, times might change, and the boy be restored if he had lived. His
disappearance made a great stir at the time; yet there were many went
from the land then and were seen no more. I thought to rear him in my
own line, but he never took kindly to it, so I just let him have his
fling amongst people of his own thinking--gentry, and the like--who knew
how to train him better than