,
became irresistibly anxious for the sake of her children--of her son in
particular; the more especially as the late Sir Henry, her husband, had,
by a settlement of his affairs, confided the custody of the persons
of her children, as well as the estates which descended to them,
independently of those which fell under his forfeiture, to his brother
Hugh, in whom he placed unlimited confidence.'

'But my mother had no reason to fear the operation of such a deed,
conceived in favour of an attainted man,' said Darsie.

'True,' replied Lilias; 'but our uncle's attainder might have been
reversed, like that of so many other persons, and our mother, who both
feared and hated him, lived in continual terror that this would be the
case, and that she should see the author, as she thought him, of her
husband's death come armed with legal powers, and in a capacity to
use them for the purpose of tearing her children from her protection.
Besides, she feared, even in his incapacitated condition, the
adventurous and pertinacious spirit of her brother-in-law, Hugh
Redgauntlet, and felt assured that he would make some attempt to possess
himself of the persons of the children. On the other hand, our uncle,
whose proud disposition might, perhaps, have been soothed by the offer
of her confidence, revolted against the distrustful and suspicious
manner in which Lady Darsie Redgauntlet acted towards him. She basely
abused, he said, the unhappy circumstances in which he was placed,
in order to deprive him of his natural privilege of protecting and
educating the infants, whom nature and law, and the will of their
father, had committed to his charge, and he swore solemnly he would
not submit to such an injury. Report of his threats was made to Lady
Redgauntlet, and tended to increase those fears which proved but too
well founded. While you and I, children at that time of two or three
years old, were playing together in a walled orchard, adjacent to our
mother's residence which she had fixed somewhere in Devonshire, my uncle
suddenly scaled the wall with several men, and I was snatched up; and
carried off to a boat which waited for them. My mother, however, flew to
your rescue, and as she seized on and held you fast, my uncle could not,
as he has since told me, possess himself of your person, without using
unmanly violence to his brother's widow. Of this he was incapable; and,
as people began to assemble upon my mother's screaming, he withdrew,
a