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40 a love so gentle and innocent. The portrait was far more like the young cavalier just entering the chamber than the original who sat opposite, watching his once resemblance with a fixed and mournful gaze.

"My youth is renewed," said the old man, taking his son's hand; "but draw near your seat, for my voice is weak, and I have yet much to say." Robert placed a low stool beside, but his heart was too full to speak; for daylight showed more forcibly than ever the alteration in his parent. "Your brother is my last and my greatest sorrow. He was to have joined you in Germany, but he loitered at Paris, and my first letter from my forgetful child was a confession of heavy debts incurred at the gaming-table. My remittance and my remonstrance were alike unanswered; and I heard no more of Francis, till some prisoners, dragoons in Goring's regiment, were brought hither—he was one of them. Great God! but that my arm was then disabled, we should have met face to face in the battle; and who may say on whose head the sin of blood might have rested? With some difficulty I obtained a pardon; but, weary of the restraint which circumstances rendered inevitable, he again left my roof; and at this moment I know not how to find my