union which had
taken place between Eveline and myself. And now let us sit down on
this bank,--for I feel unable to remain longer standing,--and have the
goodness to listen to the extraordinary discovery which I have this day
made."

They sate down accordingly; and Lord Glenallan briefly narrated his
unhappy family history--his concealed marriage--the horrible invention by
which his mother had designed to render impossible that union which had
already taken place. He detailed the arts by which the Countess, having
all the documents relative to Miss Neville's birth in her hands, had
produced those only relating to a period during which, for family
reasons, his father had consented to own that young lady as his natural
daughter, and showed how impossible it was that he could either suspect
or detect the fraud put upon him by his mother, and vouched by the oaths
of her attendants, Teresa and Elspeth. "I left my paternal mansion," he
concluded, "as if the furies of hell had driven me forth, and travelled
with frantic velocity I knew not whither. Nor have I the slightest
recollection of what I did or whither I went, until I was discovered by
my brother. I will not trouble you with an account of my sick-bed and
recovery, or how, long afterwards, I ventured to inquire after the
sharer of my misfortunes, and heard that her despair had found a
dreadful remedy for all the ills of life. The first thing that roused me
to thought was hearing of your inquiries into this cruel business; and
you will hardly wonder, that, believing what I did believe, I should
join in those expedients to stop your investigation, which my brother
and mother had actively commenced. The information which I gave them
concerning the circumstances and witnesses of our private marriage
enabled them to baffle your zeal. The clergyman, therefore, and
witnesses, as persons who had acted in the matter only to please the
powerful heir of Glenallan, were accessible to his promises and threats,
and were so provided for, that they had no objections to leave this
country for another. For myself, Mr. Oldbuck," pursued this unhappy man,
"from that moment I considered myself as blotted out of the book of
the living, and as having nothing left to do with this world. My mother
tried to reconcile me to life by every art--even by intimations which I
can now interpret as calculated to produce a doubt of the horrible tale
she herself had fabricated. But I construed all she sai