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276 one interior dictate operating to induce her to hold out the hand of succour, and soften, in some measure, the rigours of his prison! "Impossible! but that she is deceived, she is kept in ignorance as to the extent of my sorrows!" ejaculated De Brooke; "she knows of them but in part; strict to the prohibitions given her, faithful also to the duties imposed upon her as a wife and daughter, such naturally supersede in her judgment considerations of compassion regarding myself." Lingering out his days in confinement, so hopeless of release was De Brooke, that sometimes the thought was suggested to him of selling his colonelcy, of making a compromise with his creditors, and of retiring with the overplus to some distant and cheap country, where he could have at least the enjoyment of liberty, "fly as a bird to its mountain", range unmolested the expansive soil, behold its verdant prospects, canopied by the æthereal arch of Heaven; unknown, unpitied, and forsaken by all but his faithful partner and two surviving children.

In this melancholy mood, time past, till suddenly recollecting himself, his eye ran quickly upon the dial of his watch, suspended over the chimney. The expected hour for the return of his wife had passed. What new misery might await