d Mohun,
who is in hiding, and my lord the Earl of Warwick and Holland, who is
ready to give himself up and take his trial."

Such were the news, coupled with assertions about her own honesty and that
of Molly her maid, who would never have stolen a certain trumpery gold
sleeve-button of Mr. Esmond's that was missing after his fainting fit,
that the keeper's wife brought to her lodger. His thoughts followed to
that untimely grave, the brave heart, the kind friend, the gallant
gentleman, honest of word and generous of thought (if feeble of purpose,
but are his betters much stronger than he?) who had given him bread and
shelter when he had none; home and love when he needed them; and who, if
he had kept one vital secret from him, had done that of which he repented
ere dying--a wrong indeed, but one followed by remorse, and occasioned by
almost irresistible temptation.

Esmond took his handkerchief when his nurse left him, and very likely
kissed it, and looked at the bauble embroidered in the corner. "It has
cost thee grief enough," he thought, "dear lady, so loving and so tender.
Shall I take it from thee and thy children? No, never! Keep it, and wear
it, my little Frank, my pretty boy. If I cannot make a name for myself, I
can die without one. Some day, when my dear mistress sees my heart, I
shall be righted; or if not here or now, why, elsewhere; where Honour doth
not follow us, but where Love reigns perpetual."

'Tis needless to narrate here, as the reports of the lawyers already have
chronicled them, the particulars or issue of that trial which ensued upon
my Lord Castlewood's melancholy homicide. Of the two lords engaged in that
said matter, the second, my lord the Earl of Warwick and Holland, who had
been engaged with Colonel Westbury, and wounded by him, was found not
guilty by his peers, before whom he was tried (under the presidence of the
Lord Steward, Lord Somers); and the principal, the Lord Mohun, being found
guilty of the manslaughter (which, indeed, was forced upon him, and of
which he repented most sincerely), pleaded his clergy; and so was
discharged without any penalty. The widow of the slain nobleman, as it was
told us in prison, showed an extraordinary spirit; and, though she had to
wait for ten years before her son was old enough to compass it, declared
she would have revenge of her husband's murderer. So much and suddenly had
grief, anger, and misfortune appeared to change her. But fortune, good or