ced the detested portrait, a
baser wretch did not exist on the whole earth. Yet to a dispassionate and
judicious hearer it might have seemed that there was little in the
evidence to bear out an accusation so sweeping and heavy. Little, indeed,
had the soldier to charge against him save his instrumentality in
defeating hopes and expectations which had been too long indulged to be
surrendered without anger and pain. That this instrumentality,
considering all the circumstances, was to be attributed to base and
fraudulent motives, it was natural to suspect; but the proofs were far
from being satisfactory, as they rested chiefly on surmises and
assumptions.

It will be recollected, that on the death of Major Forrester, Braxley had
brought to light a testament of undoubted authenticity, but of ancient
date, in which the whole estate of the deceased was bequeathed to his own
infant child,--an unfortunate daughter, who, however, it had never been
doubted, had perished many years before among the flames of the cabin of
her foster-mother, but who Braxley had made oath was, to the best of his
knowledge, still alive. His oath was founded, he averred, upon the
declaration of a man, the husband of the foster-mother, a certain
Atkinson, whom tory principles and practices, and perhaps crimes and
outrages--for such were charged against him--had long since driven to
seek refuge on the frontier, but who had privily returned to the major's
house, a few weeks before the latter's death, and made confession that
the girl was still living; but, being recognised by an old acquaintance,
and dreading the vengeance of his countrymen, he had immediately fled
again to the frontier, without acquainting any one with the place of the
girl's concealment. The story of Atkinson's return was confirmed by
the man who had seen and recognised him, but who knew nothing of the
cause of his visit; and Braxley declared he had already taken steps to
ferret him out, and had good hopes through his means of recovering the
lost heiress.

This story Roland affected to believe a vile fabrication, the result of a
deep-laid, and, unfortunately, too successful design on Braxloy's part to
get possession, in the name of an imaginary heiress, of the rich estates
of his patron. The authenticity of the will, which had been framed at a
period when the dissensions between Major Forrester and his brothers were
at the highest, Roland did not doubt; it was the non-existence of the