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 ther! What can he ask that we ought not to grant, to prevent the hideous catastrophe with which you are threatened?"

"That, Isabella," said Vere, solemnly, you shall never know until your father's head has rolled on the bloody scaffold; then indeed you will learn there was one sacrifice by which he might have been saved."

"And why not speak it now? Do you fear I would flinch from the sacrifice of fortune for your preservation? or would you bequeath me the bitter legacy of livelong remorse so oft as I shall think that you perished while there remained one mode of preventing the dreadful misfortune that overhangs you?"

"Then, my child," said Vere, "since you press me to name what I would a thousand times rather leave in silence, I must inform you that he will accept for ransom nothing but your hand in marriage, and that conferred before midnight this very evening!"