“Left by some traveller, I suppose. I am sorry, Sybil, that you have chanced upon this work; but you must not let its subject influence you to despondency.”
“Oh, Lyon! how can I help it? I was so strong and cheerful in my sense of innocence, I had no idea how guiltless people could be convicted and executed as criminals.”
“My darling Sybil, all these cases that you have read were tried in the last century, a period of judicial barbarism. Courts of justice are more enlightened and humane now, in our times. They do not sacrifice sacred life upon slight grounds. Come, take courage! be cheerful! trust in God, and all will be well.”
“I do trust in the Lord, and I know all will be well; but oh! I wish it were to-morrow that ship is to sail?” answered Sybil.
“It will sail very soon, dear. And now we had better go to rest, and try to get some sleep. In my character of market farmer, I have to be up very early in the morning to attend to my business, you know,” said Lyon with a smile.
Sybil acquiesced, and the fugitive couple retired for the night.
Bodily fatigue so much overcame mental anxiety, that they slept profoundly, and continued to sleep until near daylight, when they were both aroused by a loud knocking at the door.
“Oh, for Heaven’s sake, who is that?” gasped Sybil, starting up in affright, for every knock now, scared her with the thought of sheriff’s officers armed with a warrant for her arrest, and excited a whole train of prospective horrors.
“Hush, darling, hush; it is only one of the men about the place waking me up, according to orders, to be in time for the market. We must keep up our assumed characters, my dear Sybil,” said Mr. Berners, as the knocking was repeated, accompanied by the calls of,