There is but little more to tell.
The next day news of the tragedy was taken to the Dubarry Springs.
Raphael Riordon and his step-mother, Mrs. Blondelle, came over to view the corpse and see to its removal.
Gentiliska, now a very handsome matron, gazed at the dead body with a strangely mingled expression of pity, dislike, sorrow, and relief. She had not been happy with the outlaw, whom, in her ignorance and friendlessness, she had been induced to marry; and she was not now unhappy in his death.
Raphael, now a grave and handsome man, met Mrs. Berners with a sad composure. He worshipped her as constantly and as purely as ever. He had known no second faith.
Mr. Blondelle was buried at Dubarry.
His confession was duly laid before the Governor of Virginia, who, in granting Sybil a pardon for the crime she had never committed, also wrote her a vindicatory letter, in which he expressed his respect for her many virtues, and his sorrow that the blundering of the law should have caused her so much of suffering.
The criminal's confession and the Governor's letter were both published through the length and breadth of the land. And Sybil Berners became as much loved and lionized as ever she had been hated and persecuted.
In the spring other exiles returned to the neighborhood: Captain Pendleton and his wife, once Miss Minnie Sheridan; and Mr. Sheridan, with his wife, once Miss Beatrix Pendleton.
Both these couples had long been married, and had been blessed with large families of sons and daughters.