A bitter sneer was curling on the young man's lip; the mariner's face had resumed its stern expression. 'The details of my escape from Botany Bay are unimportant. Suffice it, that I once more reached America, and devoted my energies to tracing the fate of my child. In Savannah I was fortunate enough to meet with the attendant of your grandmother. She had accompanied a family of refugees from European disturbances, and from her I learned not only what I have told you already—but that my daughter had been married, and that her husband was no other than the son of her old mistress and your father!'
The young man threw his hands towards heaven and fell on his knees.
'O Thou, whose ways are inscrutable, blessed be thy name, for out of darkness thou hast brought light, and turned the misdeeds of the guilty upon themselves, and made the promptings of nature yearn in the heart of the orphan boy towards the father of my mother.'
He fell upon the old man's neck and sobbed. Such emotions are no disgrace to manhood. The mariner strained him to his heart, and it was some time ere the emotion of both had subsided sufficiently to enable the one to ask or the other to give further explanation. At length the mariner resumed. 'From this woman, who had recognised your father by a peculiar mark on his hand, I learned that she had kept the papers of your grandmother and the locket, and gave them to your father; but he treated them as fabulous, and her as an impostor. Your mother, however, gave credence to her tale, and even consulted a lawyer; but they were not sufficient without my evidence, and your father would not take any steps in the affair. Your mother kept her as an attendant till her own death, but your uncle must have heard from some source of the existence of his brother; and after his death, which happened in battle at sea, he tried to induce the widow to give up these papers. Failing in this, by a large sum of money he tempted your nurse to poison her, and possessed himself of them, representing himself as her husband's brother, but concealing his rank. She was also to make away with you; but repenting of the murder of your mother, she concealed you for some time in a distant part of the State, but he discovered her and sold her to a Tennessee planter. It was but this year I succeeded in tracing her, and finding her almost at the point of death, got these facts from her, regularly drawn up and witnessed. I bought her freedom first to enable her to give evidence, and soon after her earthly account was closed. Violetta D'Arista, your grand-mother's faithful attendant, gave me a clue by which I traced you; and she is now in London, anxious to fold you to her breast, and to aid you as far as in her power, to restore to you your birthright and inheritance.'
'And the papers?'
'If not destroyed, are in his possession.'
'Then I can obtain them, although he has had, as he thinks, all the subterranean passages stopped up, yet there remains one, by which I can penetrate to his very bed-room unseen, although a stout man could not.' The seaman mused. 'It would be dangerous. Your uncle is a brave man, and powerful. If he awoke—and such consciences must be bad sleeping companions, you would be sacrificed.'
'I fear not—for vengeance on my mother's murderer I would dare anything.'
'It must not be, young man. You have a sacred duty to perform, more binding far than vengeance, which is the Lord's alone. You have to heal the sorrows of those who will be in a great measure dependent upon you to redress the wrongs of years of oppression, to be a father to the tenants of your wide domain, and your life must not be idly risked.'
'I have it!' said Edward, eagerly. 'You say my father was fair-haired, and I am like my mother.'