d? What is it?" husband and wife cried
simultaneously.
"We have seen a party of white men, doubtlessly shipwrecked on the
coast, coming in this direction. They are even now in sight," one man
said quickly.
Diniz flushed, and his eyes grew bright with suppressed joy.
"Perhaps some of our countrymen, Miriam. Let us hasten forward to
welcome them," he cried eagerly; and leading his wife, while the crowd
followed curiously behind, Sampayo hurried in the direction from
whence the strangers were coming.
It was not long before they met the tired crew, now dwindled to about
twenty, many having perished on the way.
As Diniz stepped towards the first stranger, on whose arm leaned a
young and beautiful woman, a low cry burst from his lips.
"Panteleone!" he gasped, "is it really you?"
"What, Diniz!" and the two friends, separated for so long a time,
warmly clasped hands.
"But how comes it that you are like this?"
Panteleone briefly related their voyage from India, and the disastrous
end. Tears shone in his eyes when he recounted the sad death of Lianor
and her husband.
"Poor, poor girl! How sorry I am!" Diniz said mournfully, while
Miriam, scarcely able to repress her sobs, drew Lianor's orphan boy in
her arms, and bore him to their pretty home.
"You are welcome--all!" Sampayo said gently, turning to the
haggard-looking seamen. "Come."
A few days later a grand old ship, bound for Portugal, started from
that coast, bearing the wrecked crew to their former destination.
Amongst those on board were Diniz and his wife (Phenee had long since
joined his forefathers), who, now his innocence was made known, had no
longer the fear of being imprisoned, and could return in safety to his
native land.
Panteleone's father received Savitre with almost paternal love, and
some months after their arrival, when their mourning for poor Lianor
was lessened, the two faithful hearts became one.
Little Garcia, Tonza's son, was tenderly nurtured in their tranquil
home, and the aunt he loved so dearly became a second mother,
replacing the one he had lost.
No shadow of his father's sin darkened his young life; he lived
unconscious of the sad fate of his mother, who, won by crime, by her
death avenged Luiz Falcam, for, through her, Manuel Tonza had atoned
for all.
THE END.
The latest Works of the most popular Authors.
HER FATAL SIN; A WOMAN'S LOVE; THE TRAGEDY OF REDMOUNT.
by Mrs. M.E. Holmes.
|