r renouncing the friendship of Renaldo, he had actually resolved
to set out for Germany on his return to the house of his patron in the
beginning of the week posterior to that in which he had been arrested.

Young Melvil, whose own heart had never known the instigations of fraud,
implicitly believed the story and protestations of Fathom; and though he
would not justify that part of his conduct by which the term of his good
fortune was abridged, he could not help excusing an indiscretion into
which he had been hurried by the precipitancy of youth, and the
allurements of an artful woman. Nay, with the utmost warmth of
friendship, he undertook to wait upon Trapwell, and endeavour to soften
him into some reasonable terms of composition.

Fathom seemed to be quite overwhelmed with a deep sense of all this
goodness, and affected the most eager impatience to know the particulars
of Renaldo's fate, since their unhappy separation, more especially his
errand to this uncomfortable place, which he should henceforth revere as
the providential scene of their reunion. Nor did he forget to inquire,
in the most affectionate and dutiful manner, about the situation of his
noble parents and amiable sister.

At mention of these names, Renaldo, fetching a deep sigh, "Alas! my
friend," said he, "the Count is no more; and, what aggravates my
affliction for the loss of such a father, it was my misfortune to be
under his displeasure at the time of his death. Had I been present on
that melancholy occasion, so well I knew his generosity and paternal
tenderness, that, sure I am, he would in his last moments have forgiven
an only son, whose life had been a continual effort to render himself
worthy of such a parent, and whose crime was no other than an honourable
passion for the most meritorious of her sex. But I was removed at a
fatal distance from him, and doubtless my conduct must have been
invidiously misrepresented. Be that as it will, my mother has again
given her hand in wedlock to Count Trebasi; by whom I have the
mortification to be informed that I am totally excluded from my father's
succession; and I learn from other quarters, that my sister is
barbarously treated by this inhuman father-in-law. Grant, Heaven, I may
soon have an opportunity of expostulating with the tyrant upon that
subject."

So saying, his cheeks glowed, and his eyes lightened with resentment.
Then he thus proceeded: "My coming hither to-day was with a view to vi