'I will see him, however,' said he, pushing by those who would have detained him.
'No, no,' cried Emmeline. 'Pray, my Lord! pray, my dear uncle!'
'Uncle!' exclaimed he. 'Have I deserved to be your uncle? But I am punished—dreadfully, dreadfully punished!'
A croud was now gathering; and Godolphin was compelled to let him proceed; while he himself approached Emmeline, who was left half dead in the chariot.
'Ah! attend not to me!' said she. 'Go, I beg of you, with my poor uncle!'
Dreadful was the scene when the miserable father beheld the body of his son. In that bitter anguish which is incapable of tears, he reproached himself for the obstinacy with which, even against his own judgment, he had opposed his marriage with Emmeline.—'Instead of seeing thus my hopes blasted for ever, I might have grown old among his children and the children of my brother's daughter! But I drove her to France; and in consequence of that, the scourge, the dreadful scourge has fallen upon me! I and my house are low in the dust! Weak and wretched infatuation! Dreadful sacrifice to vain and empty ambition; Oh! my poor murdered boy!' Then, after a moment's pause, he turned suddenly to Godolphin, whose manly countenance was covered with tears. 'Tell me, Sir! did he not wish to see his misjudging father? did he leave me nothing—not even his forgiveness?'
'Lord Delamere,' said Godolphin, 'was wounded in the lungs, and every effort to speak threatened his immediate dissolution. He expressed a wish to see you and Miss Mowbray; but said very little else.'
'I brought her, because I knew he must wish to see her. But he will see her no more!' A deep and hollow groan now burst from him: his sorrow began to choak him; and exclamation was at an end; yet struggling a moment with it, he said quickly to Godolphin—'Do you think he suffered great pain?'
'I believe very little, my Lord.'
'And he had every assistance?'