“My child, you do not understand these matters,” replied Foxwell, patiently resorting to a judicial softness of speech. “Mr. Everell himself, as a soldier, who assumed the chance of war and lost, knows what my duty is—knows I once even offered to forget that duty, had he but accepted the condition.”
“Certainly I have but myself to blame,” said Everell. “For myself I make no complaint. For her, alas! my heart bleeds. I can but pray she will soon forget.”
“Forget!” cried Georgiana. “Indeed, no! I say you shall not die, Everell. Uncle, I beg you, on my knees—his life! Sure you can’t be my kinsman and refuse—you can’t be a sharer of the same blood as flows in me, and be so cruel. Answer me, uncle!—you will spare him, will not you? You say you once offered to forget your duty: if you could forget it once, you can again, cannot you?”
“‘UNCLE, I BEG YOU, ON MY KNEES—HIS LIFE!’”
“Nay, ’tis not possible now, niece; circumstances have altered. ’Twould be useless for me to explain. I can only beg you to end this supplication, Georgiana,—it will not serve you. I am not to be moved. Mr. Everell will say whether I have dealt fairly with him—would have dealt more than fairly, had he but willed. ’Tis all vastly to be regretted. Had he chosen so a week since, your sorrow had been much less. Had you bestowed your confidence upon me when he first came here, you might have been spared all sorrow. As it is, events must take their course.”
“Oh, my God, can one’s own kin be so heartless? To send him to death, who is more than life to me! What has he done?—what injury to you? He only fought for the prince in whose right he believed. Had his side won, he would have been merciful. What harm will it do you to let him go?—what harm to the kingdom, now the rebellion is put down? ’Tis profitless, ’tis needless, ’twill serve nothing, that he should die.—Oh, heaven, soften my uncle’s heart!—let him see as I see, feel as I feel!”
Foxwell, little relishing these vehement appeals, or the sight of the kneeling girl with supplicating hands, turned to Everell:
“Sir, this can accomplish nothing. I will leave you with her till the appointed time—though perhaps it were more kind to—”
“No, no!” cried Georgiana, grasping her uncle’s coat-skirt as he made to step back into the drawing-room. “Do not go!—uncle, hear me! Anything for his life!—only his life! I will do anything, give anything—only that he may not die!”