nt, or perhaps the
lesser motive swayed him, that in excepting her from the general ruin,
he was securing to himself one, who as a wife, would bring him no small
share of worldly wealth. Either may be the explanation of his conduct,
for strange as it may seem, the vilest actions are sometimes conceived
with a reserve of conscience, that shows what casuistry guilt requires,
and how much the spirit of evil lacks of courage, when it has to borrow
the energy to act from even the semblance of something good.

It was not without reluctance, at first, that Lanty ventured on the
betrayal of Mark O'Donoghue; nor did he even consent to do so, until his
own safety had been threatened by Hemsworth, and also a solemn promise
given, that he should never be brought forward to give evidence against
him, nor exhibited before the world as an informer. This was the
character he most dreaded--it was the only reproach that had any
terror for his mind. Gradually, however, and by the frequency of his
revelations to Hemsworth, this dread diminished, and in proportion, the
fears for his own safety increased. Hemsworth's game was to make him
believe that such depended solely on him--that at any moment he could
give information of a character sufficient to convict him--and by this
tie was he bound to a man he detested with all his hatred. After much
vacillation and doubt it was, that Lanty determined, whatever the
consequences to his fame, to make a full disclosure to Government, and
only bargain for his own life. Hemsworth's absence from Dublin afforded
the opportunity, and he seized it at once. Such, then, was the position
of affairs when Hemsworth reached the capital, and learned that his
agent, Lanty, was no longer at his disposition, but at that very moment
a prisoner in the gaol of Newgate, strict orders being given that nobody
was to be admitted to converse with him without the special leave of
the law officers of the crown. Now, although Hemsworth had, personally,
little to fear from any disclosure Lanty might make, yet his information
might thwart all the plans he had so artfully devised regarding the
O'Donoghues; the events impending that family being, up to that moment,
perfectly at his own direction and disposal, to delay or precipitate
which, constituted the essence of his policy. Mark could not be brought
to trial, he well knew, without exhibiting himself in the light of
an enemy and an accuser, he being the person to whom Lanty orig