Moved by her earnestness Idris gave the required promise, consoling himself over the present difficulty of the problem by the thought that it would perhaps seem easier in the days to come.
"You have not forgotten the story we read the other day," continued his mother, "of the great Hannibal; how, when he was a boy his father, leading him to the altar, made him swear to be the lifelong enemy of Rome? You, too, must make a similar oath. Bring me the Bible."
Idris brought it, and at his mother's command laid his hand upon a page of the open Book, and repeated after her the following words:—
"I swear on reaching manhood to do my best to establish my father's innocence. May God help me to keep this oath!"
"Say it again, Idie."
Idris accordingly repeated the vow, feeling somewhat proud in thus imitating the Carthaginian hero.
His mother brushed back the curls from his forehead and looked earnestly into his eyes.
"Little Idris! little Idris!" she murmured. "Am I acting foolishly? I am forgetting that you are only seven years of age—scarcely old enough to understand the meaning of what you have just uttered. No matter: when you are older, if you are a true son, as I feel sure you will be, you will not require the memory of this oath to teach you your duty. And now I will tell you the story of the murder, and why your father came to be suspected of—— Ha! what is that?" she gasped, breaking off abruptly. "Listen! O, Idie, who is it?"
They had believed themselves to be alone in the house. Mrs. Breakspear, before retiring to this sitting-room, had made fast the outer doors as well as the lower windows. In such circumstances, therefore, it was alarming to hear footsteps ascending the staircase—footsteps which Mrs. Breakspear instinctively felt to be those of a man, and not of a woman; footsteps, not of Old Pol, but of a stranger! How had he gained access to the house, and what was his object?
The unknown visitor had mounted to the head of the staircase and was now advancing along the passage leading to the room in which Mrs. Breakspear sat. Unable to speak from surprise and fear mother and son gazed at the door with dilated eyes as if expecting to see some awful vision.