presence had gladdened his children, who had nursed them from their cradles, and particularly so that young plant, which had bloomed a short-lived fragrance, and then sunk beneath the pestilential blast assailing them in their prison; him to whom he might be even indebted for his own present existence; him who, when his every function was suspended, re-animated him by his living warmth, till the heart resumed its throb, the lungs their office! Alas! to be reduced to such a dreadful alternative, and say to him, that best of earthly friends, unconnected by the ties of blood, "Robert, you must be gone!"—him whom he regarded as a brother, to speak to him in a language so harsh, so ungrateful!
"Poor honest fellow!" exclaimed De Brooke aloud, as he finished his soliloquy; "never shall I have it in my power to reward you, Robert."
Having imposed upon himself the task of cleaning the passage outside the door, Robert, upon hearing himself named, entered to know his master's pleasure. De Brooke hesitated ere he made reply; but in the next instant, seizing an occasion which presented itself unsought for.
"No, my good friend," said he, "I did not call; but since you are here, I will speak to you confi-
