"'No, Madam,' I exclaimed, 'your son still lives! and you may now glory in having reduced him to the state, in which your lover deserted Louise.'
"I rushed by her, hearing the servants approaching; escaped into the garden, and, scaling the wall, retraced my steps to Cardigan; every hope lost of discovering the will, or ever being restored to my rights. Cooler reflection, however, offered a different interpretation to the words of Mary, to what I had at first imagined they implied; and I thought it not impossible, but even probable, that Thomas had discovered the will (as he actually had), and conveyed it to my aunt and Mrs. Blond. But where to trace them—I knew not. I was moneyless, and certainly in danger of being discovered by my mother; and the same precaution they must use to elude the knowledge of Mr. Talton; would, I feared, as effectually conceal them from me. For some days, however, I endeavoured to gain intelligence of them, but in vain; and the powerful demands of hunger, at last, compelled me to engage as a common sailor in a merchantman trading to Havre-de-Grace; where, disgusted with the Captain, I left the vessel, and, having an ardent desire to know if my deserted sister was in existence, I travelled on foot to Rennes. My adventures there—my rescue of Louise, I have already related; till the period when Providence directed my steps to L'Orient, where, impelled again by necessity, I engaged to serve in a vessel destined with others to Pondicherry. The day after we reached St. Helena, you, Captain Howard, also arrived there, and fortune, there wearied of persecuting me, not only restored me to your friendship, but discovered to me a sister, endeared to my heart by her misfortunes, before a personal knowledge made me love her for her virtues; yet the recollection of past events, forced continually to mind by her striking resemblance to my mother, preyed on my heart. I again sunk under it; and, but for the attentions of you, my friends, should most probably, ere this period, have left my mother the lawful possessor of the fortune she now illegally holds."
"Thank Heaven, my prayers were heard for the preservation of your existence:" said Louise: "though, had you, my brother, entrusted me with the secrets you have this day disclosed, Louise would have been your comforter, and, by sharing your griefs, have lightened the sorrow which oppressed you."
"Say, rather, have added to it, my dear girl;" said Sir Henry, "from the consciousness of having rendered you as unhappy as myself: and but for the discovery of last night, this of to-day would never have taken place. For the friends we here found, I wished the recovery of my fortune; as indeed with them the means rested: and, had not Providence conducted us to them, should never on my own account oppose her, who, whatever are her failings,—is still my mother!"
The company here unanimously joined in thanking Sir Henry for the elucidation of the mysteries which had perplexed them.
"Yet has he not related every particular," said Ellenor, smiling. "He might have added, that since the deaths of his father and Blond, his hand has not only sustained Ellenor and her son, but the descendants of Sir James Elvyn.
"On your second emigration, my Henry, your mother, not being able to discover you, turned the effects of her rage against us, and sent a peremptory demand, by Mr. Talton, for the back-rents. This message, which portended our ruin, threw us into the utmost consternation; though, had I entertained a suspicion the lover of Lady Corbet was the former friend of my Howard, I should not have hesitated a moment in discovering myself to him, and appealing to the rectitude of his own principles against the injustice and inhumanity of the claim. Your mother, however, at that time, went to London, and Mr. Talton accompanying her, in some degree freed us from our fears of immediate distress; but the following morning, Mallet, attended by an officer, entered the room whilst we were at breakfast, and arrested Mrs. Blond for three and twenty hundred pounds, the amount of the rent for seventeen years.—Nor was my unhappy friend treated with either respect or mercy, but, on declaring her inability to discharge the debt, instantly hurried away to confinement.
"To sue for lenity, I was certain would be in vain, I therefore (trusting to Sir Henry's friendship, to redress the injury,) paid the money; consisting of my father's legacy to Blond, which had hitherto been preserved for Eliza, and the money Sir Henry had supplied me with, for my Edward's maintenance at the University.
"Lady Corbet, however, was determined on forcing us from Caermarthen; for, a few weeks after, we were privately informed by a servant from the Hall, that he had overheard Mallet threatening to arrest both me and Mrs. Blond, as joint tenants, for the rent of the parsonage since the death of Blond, and from Mr. Talton's name being likewise mentioned, he was induced, he said, to think that gentleman concerned in the business.—This relation, added to the late occurrence, considerably affected the health of Hannah; and she earnestly entreated her sister to leave the Parsonage, and seek a surer asylum at the house of Lieutenant Booyers, at least till we should hear from Sir Henry. Mrs. Blond readily acceded to the proposal, and, writing for my Edward to return, we prepared for our departure.
"At that time Thomas returned from Cornwall, where he had been sent some time before Sir Henry's elopement; and on being informed of that circumstance, and our sentiments respecting Lady Corbet, he declared he had supported my brother, when he took his will from the private room, and placed it in the recess of his closet; but ever supposed it had been the same which was produced after his decease. He undertook to procure it; but could not accomplish his design, till the day previous to Lady Corbet's return; the library being shut up, and Mallet in possession of the keys: an opportunity then presented itself, of entering unperceived, and he found the will, indeed, where my brother had placed it. He immediately brought it to me; when every ardent hope, the discovery had raised, was destroyed, by the report of Sir Henry's death. Thomas's dislike to Lady Corbet being greatly increased by the knowledge of this action, he determined to follow my fortunes, and attach himself to my son as his future master. We accordingly proceeded to Lieutenant Booyers, where the amiable Hannah—her gentle spirit broken by repeated afflictions—sunk beneath this last misfortune, and, a few weeks after, found a refuge from her sorrows in the grave.