“Then Don Alejandro is dead!” exclaimed the principal, startled by the intelligence.
“He died in the greatest agony and remorse,” added the lawyer. “He was sick four weeks, and suffered the most intense pain till death relieved him. He confessed to me, when I went to make his will, that he had intended to get his nephew out of the way in some manner, before the boy was of an age to inherit his father’s property. Don Manuel had charged him with this purpose before he left Spain, and had repeated the charge in his letters. He confessed because he wanted his brother’s forgiveness, as well as that of the Church. He wished me to see that justice was done to his nephew. When I wrote you that last letter, my client desired to see the young man, and to implore his forgiveness for the injury he had done him as a child, and for that he had meditated.”
“This is a very singular story,” said Mr. Lowington. “You did not give me the reason for which Don Alejandro wished to see his nephew.”
“I did not know it myself. What I have related transpired since I wrote that letter. The case is one of the remarkable ones; but I have known a few just like it,” continued the lawyer. “My client was told by the physicians that he could not recover. Such an announcement to a Christian who has committed a crime—and to meditate it is the same thing in the eye of the Church, though not of the law—could not but change the whole current of his thoughts. I know that it caused my client more suffering than his bodily ailments, severe as the latter were. The terrors of the world to come haunted him; and he believed, that, if he did not do justice to that young man before he died, he would suffer for his crime through all the ages of eternity; and I believe so too. I think he confessed the crime to me, after he had done so to the priest, because he believed his son, who had been in his confidence, would carry out his wicked purpose after his father was gone; for this son would inherit the estate as the next heir under the will of the grandfather.”
“I can understand how things appear to a man as wicked as your client was, when death stares him in the face,” added Mr. Lowington.
“Now the young man is wanted. He is not of age, but he ought to have a voice in the selection of his guardian.”
“I don’t know where he is under the altered circumstances, any more than I did before,” replied the principal; “but I am willing to make an effort to find him. Is he in any danger from the son of your late client?”
“None at all: the son denies that he ever had any knowledge of the business; and, since the confession of the father, the son would not dare to do any thing wrong. Besides, my client put all the property in my hands before he died.”
The next thing was to find Raymond. He might see the announcement of the death of his uncle in the newspapers; but, if he did not, he would be sure to keep out of the way till the squadron was ready to sail for the “isles of the sea.” Mr. Lowington sent for Bark Lingall, who had by this time established his character as one of the best-behaved and most earnest students in his vessel. The principal rehearsed the events that made it desirable to find Raymond.
“Do you think you could find him, Lingall?” asked Mr. Lowington.