"Behold him!" returned Trenchard, taking Thames (who had been a mute, but deeply-interested, witness of the scene) by the hand, and leading him towards her.
"Ah!" exclaimed Lady Trafford, exerting all her strength. "My sight is failing me. Let me have more light, that I may behold him. Yes!" she screamed, "these are his father's features! It is—it is my son!"
"Mother!" cried Thames; "are you, indeed, my mother?"
"I am, indeed—my own sweet boy!" she sobbed, pressing him tenderly to her breast.
"Oh!—to see you thus!" cried Thames, in an agony of affliction.
"Don't weep, my love," replied the lady, straining him still more closely to her. "I am happy—quite happy now."
During this touching interview, a change had come over Sir Rowland, and he half repented of what he had done.
"You can no longer refuse to tell me the name of this youth's father, Aliva," he said.
"I dare not, Rowland," she answered. "I cannot break my vow. I will confide it to Father Spencer, who will acquaint you with it when I am no more. Undraw the curtain, love," she added to Thames, "that I may look at you."
"Ha!" exclaimed her son, starting back, as he obeyed her, and disclosed Jonathan Wild.