t, seems with you to follow steadily in
the wake of reason."

"If you mean that I am ever ready to sacrifice my own selfish impulses
to my duty, I do esteem it as a compliment, though I fear not altogether
deserved."

"Well, then," said the Governor, "this poor boy, Hansford, who is to
suffer death to-morrow, I have had a strange interview concerning him
since I last saw you."

"Aye, with Miss Temple," returned Bernard. "She told me she had seen
you, and that you were as impregnable to assault as the rock of
Gibraltar."

"I thought so too, where treason was concerned," said Berkeley. "But
some how, the leaven of the poor girl's tears is working strangely in my
heart; and after I had left her, who should I meet but her old father."

"Is Colonel Temple here?" asked Bernard, surprised.

"Aye is he, and urged Hansford's claims to pardon with such force, that
I had to fly from temptation. Nay he even put his plea for mercy upon
the ground of his own former kindness to me."

"The good old gentleman seems determined to be paid for that
hospitality," said Bernard, with a sneer. "Well!"

"Well, altogether I am almost determined to interpose my reprieve,
until the wishes of his majesty are known," said Berkeley, with some
hesitation.

Bernard was silent, for some moments, and the Governor continued.

"What do you say to this course Alfred?"

"Simply, that if you are determined, I have nothing to say."

"Nay, but I am not determined, my young friend."

"Then I must ask you what are the grounds of your hesitation, before I
can express an opinion?" said Bernard.

"Well, first," said the Governor, "because it will be a personal favour
to Colonel Temple, and will dry the tears in those blue eyes of his
pretty daughter. His kindness to me in this unhappy rebellion would be
but poorly requited, if I refused the first and only favour that he has
ever asked of me."

"Then hereafter," returned Bernard, quietly, "it would be good policy in
a rebellion, for half the rebels to remain at home and entertain the
Governor at their houses. They would thus secure the pardon of the
rest."

"Well, you young Solomon," said Berkeley, laughing, "I believe you are
right there. It would be a dangerous precedent. But then, a reprieve is
not a pardon, and while I might thus oblige my friends, the king could
hereafter see the cause of justice vindicated."

"And you would shift your own responsibility upon the king," replied
Bernard. "H