had no longer any fear that his brother would resume the charge
concerning him before the court--bad as he knew him to be, he did not
believe that he would do this, though he doubted not that he would have
managed to have kept him in confinement, and perhaps to have carried him
thus to England, partly from revengeful feelings towards him, and partly
to keep him out of the presence of her whom he so tenderly loved. But,
lest his brother should be betrayed by his feelings into any extremity
of action concerning him, he resolved at once to write him a note,
declaring that their relationship was known, and that should any further
persecution be offered, the same should at once be made public to the
oppressor's disgrace.

With this purpose, he hardly awaited the breaking of day before he
possessed himself of writing materials, and wrote and despatched the
following to his brother:

"CAPTAIN ROBERT BRAMBLE,--About the same time you receive this note, you
will also be made aware, doubtless, of my escape from durance vile in
your ship. The purpose of my sending yon this is not to ask any favors
at the hand of one who was never actuated towards me even in childhood
by a brother's regard, but whose sole desire and purpose have been to
oppress and injure one related to him by the nearest ties of
relationship. My object is rather to let you know that any further
attempt to arraign me before the court will lead at once to a public
declaration of the fact that your are my brother, a relationship which
necessity alone will compel me to publish to the people of Sierra Leone.

CHARLES BRAMBLE,
"Alias CAPTAIN WILL RATLIN."

Charles Bramble felt that he was safe from further immediate oppression
on his brother's part, and that it was only necessary for him to keep
quietly within doors until some chance for shipping from the port should
occur, to enable him to disentangle himself from the singular web of
circumstances which chance had woven so net-like about him. In spite of
the sad accomplishments of the realization of his condition as it
regarded his brother, and the partial danger of his present position,
yet there was a lightness to his heart, a buoyancy in his breast, which
he had not known for nearly a score of years, for he now felt that all
shame of birth was removed from him, that he was respectably and even
highly born, and that in point of blood was even the equal, full equal
of that fair and lovely girl he regard