Page:Paul Clifford Vol 3.djvu/322

314 Clifford received the mitigation of his sentence, and on that day another trial awaited Lucy. We think, briefly to convey to the reader what that scene was, we need only observe, that Dummie Dunnaker, decoyed by his great love for little Paul, whom he delightedly said he found not the least "stuck up by his great fame and helewation," still lingered in the town, and was not only aware of the relationship of the cousins, but had gleaned from Long Ned, as they journeyed down to, the affection entertained by Clifford for Lucy. Of the manner in which the communication reached Lucy, we need not speak: suffice it to say, that on the day in which she had performed the last duty to her uncle, she learned, for the first time, her lover's situation.

On that evening, in the convict's cell, the cousins met. Their conference was low, for the gaoler stood within hearing; and it was broken by Lucy's convulsive sobs. But the voice of one whose iron nerves were not unworthy of the offspring of William Brandon, was clear and audible to her ear, even though uttered in a whisper that scarcely stirred his lips. It