d been
alienated from him. It was only when Wolfgang formed his connection
with Julia de St. Val in Geneva that Hubert saw his way to effecting
his brother's ruin. And that was the time when he came to an
understanding with Daniel, to provoke the old man by villainous devices
to take measures which should drive his son to despair.

He was well aware of old Roderick's opinion that the only way to ensure
an illustrious future for the family to all subsequent time was by
means of an alliance with one of the oldest families in the country.
The old man had read this alliance in the stars, and any pernicious
derangement of the constellation would only entail destruction upon the
family he had founded. In this way it was that Wolfgang's union with
Julia seemed to the old man like a sinful crime, committed against the
ordinances of the Power which had stood by him in all his worldly
undertakings; and any means that might be employed for Julia's ruin he
would have regarded as justified for the same reason, for Julia had, he
conceived, ranged herself against him like some demoniacal principle.
Hubert knew that his brother loved Julia passionately, almost to
madness in fact, and that the loss of her would infallibly make him
miserable, perhaps kill him. And Hubert was all the more ready to
assist the old man in his plans as he had himself conceived an unlawful
affection for Julia, and hoped to win her for himself. It was, however,
determined by a special dispensation of Providence that all attacks,
even the most virulent, were to be thwarted by Wolfgang's resoluteness;
nay, that he should contrive to deceive his brother: the fact that his
marriage was actually solemnised and that of the birth of a son were
kept secret from Hubert In Roderick's mind also there occurred, along
with the presentiment of his approaching death, the idea that Wolfgang
had really married the Julia who was so hostile to him. In the letter
which commanded his son to appear at R--sitten on a given day to take
possession of the entail, he cursed him if he did not sever his
connection with her. This was the letter that Wolfgang burnt beside his
father's corpse. To Hubert the old man wrote, saying that Wolfgang had
married Julia, but that he would part from her. This Hubert took to be
a fancy of his visionary father's; accordingly he was not a little
dismayed when on reaching R--sitten Wolfgang with perfect frankness not
only confirmed the old man's supposition