gence I
received with inconceivable delight; for it had been settled between
your mother and myself, that this should be the moment chosen for her
departure. It was not to be supposed (and I should have been both
pained and disappointed had it been otherwise,) that she would consent
to abandon her parent without some degree of regret; but, having
foreseen this objection from the first, I had gradually prepared her
for the sacrifice. This was the less difficult, as he appeared never to
have treated her with affection,--seldom with the marked favour that
might have been presumed to distinguish the manner of a father towards
a lovely and only daughter. Living for himself and the indulgence of
his misanthropy alone, he cared little for the immolation of his
child's happiness on its unhallowed shrine; and this was an act of
injustice I had particularly dwelt upon; upheld in truth, as it was, by
the knowledge she herself possessed, that no consideration could induce
him to bestow her hand on any one individual of a race he so cordially
detested; and this was not without considerable weight in her decision.

"With a glowing cheek, and a countenance radiant with happiness, did
your mother receive my proposal to prepare for her departure on the
following day. She was sufficiently aware, even through what I had
stated myself, that there were certain ceremonies of the Church to be
performed, in order to give sanctity to our union, and ensure her own
personal respectability in the world; and these, I told her, would be
solemnised by the chaplain of the regiment. She implicitly confided in
me; and she was right; for I loved her too well to make her my
mistress, while no barrier existed to her claim to a dearer title. And
had she been the daughter of a peasant, instead of a high-born
gentleman, finding her as I had found her, and loving her as I did love
her, I should have acted precisely in the same way.

"The only difficulty that now occurred was the manner of her flight.
The opening before alluded to as being the point whence the old woman
made her weekly sally to the market town, was of so intricate and
labyrinthian a character that none but the colonel understood the
secret of its fastenings; and the bare thought of my venturing with her
on the route by which I had hitherto made my entry into the oasis, was
one that curdled my blood with fear. I could absolutely feel my flesh
to contract whenever I painted the terrible risk tha