fter darting upon you and her one of those fearful looks, which, it is
said, remain with our family, as a fatal bequest of Sir Alberick, our
ancestor.'

'I have some recollection of the scuffle which you mention,' said
Darsie; 'and I think it was my uncle himself (since my uncle he is)
who recalled the circumstance to my mind on a late occasion. I can now
account for the guarded seclusion under which my poor mother lived--for
her frequent tears, her starts of hysterical alarm, and her constant and
deep melancholy. Poor lady! what a lot was hers, and what must have been
her feelings when it approached to a close!'

'It was then that she adopted,' said Lilias, 'every precaution her
ingenuity could suggest, to keep your very existence concealed from the
person whom she feared--nay, from yourself; for she dreaded, as she
is said often to have expressed herself, that the wildfire blood of
Redgauntlet would urge you to unite your fortunes to those of your
uncle, who was well known still to carry on political intrigues, which
most other persons had considered as desperate. It was also possible
that he, as well as others, might get his pardon, as government showed
every year more lenity towards the remnant of the Jacobites, and then he
might claim the custody of your person, as your legal guardian. Either
of these events she considered as the direct road to your destruction.'

'I wonder she had not claimed the protection of Chancery for me,' said
Darsie; 'or confided me to the care of some powerful friend.'

'She was on indifferent terms with her relations, on account of her
marriage with our father,' said Lilias, 'and trusted more to secreting
you from your uncle's attempts, than to any protection which law
might afford against them. Perhaps she judged unwisely, but surely not
unnaturally, for one rendered irritable by so many misfortunes and so
many alarms. Samuel Griffiths, an eminent banker, and a worthy clergyman
now dead were, I believe, the only persons whom she intrusted with the
execution of her last will; and my uncle believes that she made them
both swear to observe profound secrecy concerning your birth and
pretensions, until you should come to the age of majority, and, in the
meantime, to breed you up in the most private way possible, and that
which was most likely to withdraw you from my uncle's observation.'

'And I have no doubt,' said Darsie, 'that betwixt change of name
and habitation, they might have succ