law, forbade him to attempt to punish:
drowning was but the orthodox ordeal of a suspected witch, and it was
not without many scruples that the poor woman was interred in holy
ground. The search for the Eureka was a pretence that sufficed for
countless visits; and then, too, Hastings had counselled Adam to sell
the ruined house, and undertaken the negotiation; and the new comforts
of their present residence, and the expense of the maintenance, were
laid to the account of the sale. Hastings had begun to consider Adam
Warner as utterly blind and passive to the things that passed under his
eyes; and his astonishment was great when, the morning after the visit
we have just recorded, Adam, suddenly lifting his eyes, and seeing the
guest whispering soft tales in Sibyll's ear, rose abruptly, approached
the nobleman, took him gently by the arm, led him into the garden, and
thus addressed him,--

"Noble lord, you have been tender and generous in our misfortunes. The
poor Eureka is lost to me and the world forever. God's will be done!
Methinks Heaven designs thereby to rouse me to the sense of nearer
duties; and I have a daughter whose name I adjure you not to sully,
and whose heart I pray you not to break. Come hither no more, my Lord
Hastings."

This speech, almost the only one which showed plain sense and judgment
in the affairs of this life that the man of genius had ever uttered, so
confounded Hastings, that he with difficulty recovered himself enough to
say,--

"My poor scholar, what hath so suddenly kindled suspicions which wrong
thy child and me?"

"Last eve, when we sat together, I saw your hand steal into hers, and
suddenly I remembered the day when I was young, and wooed her mother!
And last night I slept not, and sense and memory became active for my
living child, as they were wont to be only for the iron infant of my
mind, and I said to myself, 'Lord Hastings is King Edward's friend; and
King Edward spares not maiden honour. Lord Hastings is a mighty peer,
and he will not wed the dowerless and worse than nameless girl!' Be
merciful! Depart, depart!"

"But," exclaimed Hastings, "if I love thy sweet Sibyll in all honesty,
if I have plighted to her my troth--"

"Alas, alas!" groaned Adam.

"If I wait but my king's permission to demand her wedded hand, couldst
thou forbid me the presence of my affianced?"

"She loves thee, then?" said Adam, in a tone of great anguish,--"she
loves thee,--speak!"

"It is my pr