The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 98: what you’re looking at

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

THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. $f telling you more than I have now told you. -He does not kncw more, although he dreads more, I am the only living soul in the world who can give you the information you require. Iam the only human being who can bring forward proofs that what I assert is no fable. I tell you, Mabel, that from my lips you must hear all, or never hear it.” ‘‘Can you,” she said, ‘‘ withhold such information from a daughter who longs to know if her father lives? Oh, if you have a heart susceptible of feeling, think what must be the anxiety Iam now enduring! I have for many years been anxious to learn the fate of my father—that father whom I have not known or seen since I was able to distinguish form or feature. Tell me, I implore—I entreat of you, tell me, does he yet live?” The man seemed moved; at least a sigh escaped him, and he seemed to feel the appeal. Mabel seized the favorable impres- sion, and proceeded — “Oh, do not let your heart be hardened; let it feel some of those tender sympathies which it must at one time, at least, have felt, and which it will again. Tell me, oh, tell me, does my father yet live ?” There was a pause, and the man, who had listened to her with a downcast look, suddenly raised his eyes to her face, and, in low accents, he said: ** He does live.” ‘** He does live!” exclaimed Mabel, clasping her hands; a flash of joy for the moment illumined her countenance. ‘‘ Tell me, I again implore you; do not leave me in this state of suspense. Complete the information you have given—tell me who my aner is—tell me where he is, and I shall forever bless and pray for you.” ‘¢ Ah!” said the man, ‘“‘ you know not what you ask; you know not the consequences of such knowledge.” **T care not; all I wish is for my father; my own, my dear father.” “‘T say again, you know not what you ask; the knowledge may bring with it pain and sorrow. Your father, though still living, may be poor—he may be too proud to work—he may be —in short, he may be sought by hungry creditors, who seek him with the avidity of a wolf seeking its prey.” “‘I would stand between bim and them. They should not olpe my father. I would love and revere him, despite all the world.” | ‘But ie ae he should be stained with crime. Suppose——” “Hold! he could not be, Iam sure. I feel a moral presenti- ment come over me that such a man is not my father.” ‘*Then you know your fathér?”’ “‘T know his heart. It must be good—it must be honorable.” **And would you really know all this, in despite all I have said—all the warnings I have uttered on this subject ?” ‘For what came I hear but to learn all this—to know what he is—to fiud, indeed, to find my perent ?” ‘‘ Well, then Mabel, you shall know it; you shall learn: thig comicbooks. com