"The disposition of this estate, depends then entirely upon your integrity, and especially upon your fidelity to your oath?"—the statesman, as though he knew the chord most sensitive, in the strong honest nature of Martin Fulmer, watched him keenly, as he awaited his answer.
Martin bowed his head.
"Under those circumstances, it is clear to you, is it not, that the estate falls to those of the Seven Heirs, who are now present?"
"If I am faithful to my oath, such will be my disposition of the estate."
"Faithful to your oath?" echoed Godlike.
"That would be highly immoral," said Israel Yorke.
It was in a slow and measured tone, and with his venerable head, placed firmly on his shoulders, that Martin Fulmer said,—
"Sir, you know me," to Godlike,—"in the times of the Bank panic, I met you in the vestibule of the senate, and had some interesting conversation with you. You know that I would sooner die than break my word, much less my oath, and of all others, the oath which I took to Gulian Van Huyden. But may not circumstances arise in which the breaking of that oath may be a lighter crime, than strict obedience to it?"
Godlike started—Yorke half rose from his chair.
"Reflect for a moment. Circumstances have arisen, which the testator could not have ever dreamed of, when he loaded me with this trust, under the seal of that awful oath. It was doubtless his wish that his estates, swelled by the accumulation of twenty-one years, should descend into the hands of his son, who having been reared in poverty and hardship, would know how to use this wealth for the good of mankind,—or in the absence of his son, that it should be dispersed for the good of the race, by the hands of seven persons, selected from the descendants of the original Van Huyden, and scattered throughout the Union. Such was doubtless his idea. But behold how different the result. The son is dead. Only two of the Seven are here. Shall I, adhering to the letter of the law, to the oath in its strictest sense, divide this great estate between you two? Or, fearful of the awful evil which you may work to the world, with this untold wealth, shall I—in order to avoid this evil,—refuse to divide the estate, and take upon myself the moral penalty of the broken oath?"