truck upon the ears and
pierced into the heart of one whose tender conscience would not let
him rest with the burden of this knowledge weighing down upon it. What
was it that he heard, gentlemen? We can only conjecture. The laws of
evidence drop down upon us here and forbid that we should fully know.
But that it was a tale that brought conviction to the mind of this
brave boy you cannot doubt. It is for no light cause that he comes
here to publicly renounce his right and title to the name, the wealth,
the high maternal love that yesterday was lying at his feet and
smiling in his face. The counsel for the plaintiff tries to throw
upon him the mantle of the eavesdropper, but the breath of this boy's
lightest word lifts such a covering from him, and reveals his purity
of purpose and his agony of mind in listening to the revelation that
was made. I do not wonder that he should lose the power to move on
hearing it. I do not wonder that he should be compelled, as if by
some strange force, to sit and listen quietly to every piercing word.
I can well conceive how terrible the shock would be to one who came,
as he did, fresh from a home where love had made the hours so sweet
to him that he thought them fairer than any he had ever known before.
I can well conceive what bitter disappointment and what deep emotion
filled his breast. But the struggle that began there then between
his boyish sense of honor and his desire for home, for wealth, for
fond affection, I cannot fathom that;--it is too deep, too high,
too terrible for me to fully understand. I only know that honor was
triumphant; that he bade farewell to love, to hope, to home, to the
brightest, sweetest things in all this world of beauty, and turned his
face manfully, steadfastly, unflinchingly to the right. With the help
and counsel of one honest man, he set about to check the progress of a
mighty wrong. No disappointment discouraged him, no fear found place
in his heart, no distance was too great for him to traverse. He knew
that here, to-day, without his presence, injustice would be done,
dishonesty would be rewarded, and shameless fraud prevail. It was
for him, and him alone, to stop it, and he set out upon his journey
hither. The powers of darkness were arrayed against him, fate scowled
savagely upon him, disaster blocked his path, the iron horse refused
to draw him, but he remained undaunted and determined. He had no time
to lose; he left the conquered power of steam b