[_They exeunt, he follows them, and returns._

Again they have escaped me--"_The infant died with its mother_"--This
agony of doubt is insupportable.

_Enter_ EVERGREEN.

_Everg._ Henry, well met.

_Henry._ Have you seen strangers?

_Everg._ No!

_Henry._ Two but now have left this place--They spoke of a lost
child--My busy fancy led me to think I was the object of their search--I
pressed forward, but they avoided me.

_Everg._ No, no; it could not be you; for no one on earth knows but
myself, and----

_Henry._ Who? Sir Philip Blandford?

_Everg._ I am sworn, you know, my dear boy; I am solemnly sworn to
silence.

_Henry._ True, my good old friend; and if the knowledge of who I am can
only be obtained at the price of thy perjury, let me for ever remain
ignorant--let the corroding thought still haunt my pillow, cross me at
every turn, and render me insensible to the blessings of health and
liberty--yet, in vain do I suppress the thought--who am I? why thus
abandoned? perhaps the despised offspring of guilt--Ah! is it so?
[_Seizing him violently._

_Everg._ Henry, do I deserve this?

_Henry._ Pardon me, good old man! I'll act more reasonably--I'll deem
thy silence mercy.

_Everg._ That's wisely said.

_Henry._ Yet it is hard to think, that the most detested reptile that
nature forms, or man pursues, has, when he gains his den, a parent's
pitying breast to shelter in; but I----

_Everg._ Come, come, no more of this.

_Henry._ Well!----I visited to-day that young man who was so grievously
bruised by the breaking of his team.

_Everg._ That was kindly done, Henry.

_Henry._ I found him suffering under extreme torture, yet a ray of joy
shot from his languid eye--for his medicine was administered by a
father's hand--it was a mother's precious tear that dropped upon his
wound--Oh, how I envied him!

_Everg._ Still on the same subject--I tell thee, if thou art not
acknowledged by thy race, why, then become the noble founder of a new
one.--Come with me to the castle, for the last time.

_Henry._ The last time!

_Everg._ Aye, boy; for, when Sir Philip arrives, you must avoid him.

_Henry._ Not see him! where exists the power that shall prevent me?

_Everg._ Henry, if you value your own peace of mind--if you value an old
man's comfort, avoid the castle.

_Henry._ [_Aside._] I must dissemble with this honest creature--Well, I
am content.