The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 131: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

128 THE CHILD OF WATERLOO, Jane, into the cross-road, and cleared the small market town that he had before seen lay ahead of them. ‘You may endanger my life,” said the mendicant, ‘‘ but you cannot alter my purpose, or shake my resolution. JI am deter- mined that you shall not escape from me; and let the reflection sink deep into your heart, that, though you have, through the force of circumstances, been separated from me, yet I am still your father—a father that, had circumstances proved better, would have been a kinder one; but they have not, andI know but one course to pursue.” . “Tf you are in need of money, let me return, and I promise you, you shall be amply rewarded for your trouble.” ‘Tt is a delusion, and cannot be done; but it is bootless to talk upon the subject. You know what I have said; you can per- haps take my life, and in return for such an act of filial tende : ness, be assured I have that which I can and will disclose, that shall make you wish for death, to hide your shame and con- fusion. It isasecret that would even bring down the abhorrence of your best friends; and though they might endeavor to repress it before you, you would be looked upon as something loathsome and disgusting.” <* — ‘‘God of Heaven!” exclaimed Mabel, ‘‘can there be any human heart so depraved, so hardened against. all kindness and feeling, as to be capable of doing such a deed as that you speak of? Oh, I have, indeed, fallen into very different hands to those I have been used to.” ‘Can you be so dead to all feeling yourself, Mabel, as to wish to sacrifice the life of your father?” . ‘‘But are you so?” ‘“‘T swear it!” vehemently replied the mendicant; ‘‘ I swear it by all you hold most dear and sacred.” ‘‘Heaven looks down upon and can best tell if you be per- jured or not; yo have nut been a father to me, and others have; to whom am I most indebted ?” ‘*To the author of your being,” said the mendicant, sternly. ‘““To my God!” The mendicant made no reply; the answer seemed to him one that he could not reply to, or he chose not to do so, and they rode side by sitle at a moderate pace, until they came near the town, and then spurring their horses forward, they went through at a sharp pace, and when they had got a mile or better through, the pace was again slackened to a good round trot. _ The evening sun was setting behind them, and threw their shadows on in advance for some distance. The air was mild and serene, and a more beautiful hour or spot could not be well chosen. The two travelers still rode side by side, the mendicant keeping hold of Mabel’s bridle so that she could not escape. After about four hours’ riding, they arrived in the outskirts of London, and then the scene changed. Hitherto they had seen nothing but the hedgerows, where there were any, by the road-side, or they passed over barren tracts of heath or common land; but now the road-side wag fined with houses and villas, and, in some places, as the coulis comicbooks. com