Mr. Athelstone put forth his hand with a sign, that he wished to be heard to the end; and then he benignly resumed:—
"But I went forward; and repeated those blessed words of the giver of all pardon:—
"Peace be to this house, and grace to all who dwell within it!
"When I drew near, the Duke stretched out his hand to me. "Mr. Athelstone, (said he) you do not visit the pillow of an impenitent. But where is my friend?" And he looked as if he thought you were behind me."
"And he looked in vain!" exclaimed Louis.
"But your spirit entered with your uncle!" replied the Pastor, laying his hand gently on the bent head of his nephew. "And a better spirit, my child: that which, as a minister of Christ, I derived from his holy word!" The succeeding two hours I passed by the bedside of the Duke of Wharton; and when I left him, that resplendent countenance of his was lit with a new light; the effulgence of heaven shone on it, and pressing my hand to his lips, he called me his father! his better father!— "For you have poured on me, (said he,) not the unction which gives temporal, but that which dispenses eternal life!"
Two similar hours were now passed between Louis and his uncle. During that time, all was communicated, which the former had learnt from Santa Cruz relative to Duke Wharton; and Mr. Athelstone unfolded to his nephew what the sealed papers in Cornelia's possession contained, and which, as a full avowal to his Christian confessor, the Duke had permitted the Pastor to read.
The night that followed Wharton's first conference with Mr. Athelstone, was succeeded by a comfortable sleep. And then it was, that on the ensuing morning, before he would venture to partake the holiest rite of the Christian church, with the Pastor, and his still hovering attendant, Cornelia, he entreated both, to break those seals, and read the contents. The packet that was addressed to de Montemar, did not contain the later circumstances which Santa Cruz had mentioned, for those particulars it referred Louis to that mutual friend. But the narrative generally and briefly explained his antecedent conduct with regard to Ripperda and his son; and ended with affirming the spotless fidelity of the former, both to the sovereigns of Austria and of Spain, until he passed from Europe into Barbary. His concluding farewell to Louis was short, but to the soul; yet, still the usual spirit of the writer prevailed, to cloathe his last words in the cheerful garb of verse—and he wrote:
"Be kind to my remains; and oh, defend
Against your judgment, your departed friend!
Let not the invidious foe, my fame pursue!
The world I served, and only injured you!"
The second paper was to the secretary of state in London; declaring on the word of a dying man, that he only suspected, under whose protection he was.