nhuman torturer!

_Helen._ Were my heart as free as air I never would consent to a union
with such a monster!

_Sir W._ And if _you_ would, curse me if _I_ would--nor my lady Worret
either.

_Sir R._ Let him fulful his purpose if he dare! I now see the black
corruptness of his heart; and though my life were at stake I would pay
the forfeit, rather than immolate innocence in the arms of such
depravity.

_Lord A._ Call in the officers, I say!

_O'Ded_ (_without moving._) I shall do that thing.

_Lord A._ 'Tis justice I demand! Justice and Revenge alike direct me,
and their united voice shall be obeyed.

_Falkner_ (_enters suddenly._) They shall! behold me here, thou
miscreant, to urge it! justice and revenge you call for, and they shall
both fall heavily upon you.

_Sir. R._ Falkner!

_O'Ded._ What! Abel Grouse, Mr. Falkner! here's a transmogrification for
you!

_Sir R._ How! Falkner and the unknown cottager the same person!

_Falk._ Ay, sir; the man who cautioned you today in vain; who warned you
of the precipice beneath your feet, and was unheeded by you--

_Sir R._ Amazement! what would you have me do?

_Falk._ Before this company assist me with the power you possess (and
that power is ample) to compel your haughty nephew to repair the injury,
which, in a humbler character, he has done me--

_Lord A._ He compel me! ridiculous!

_Falk._ (_to sir Rowland._) Insensible to injury and insult, can nothing
move you? _Reveal your secret!_

_Lord A._ I'll hear no more. Summon the officers I say. I am resolved.

_Sir R._ I too am at last resolved! at length the arm is raised that, in
descending must crush you.

_Lord A._ I despise your united threats! am I to be the sport of
insolence and fraud? _What_ am I, sir, that thus you dare insult me! Who
am I?

_Sir R._ No longer the man you seem to be! hear me! before grief and
shame shall burst my heart, hear me proclaim my guilt! When the late
lord Austencourt dying bequeathed his infant son to my charge, my own
child was of the same age! prompted by the demons of ambition, and
blinded to guilt by affection for my own offspring--_I changed the
children._

_Charles._ Merciful Heaven!

_Sir R._ (_to lord A._) Hence it follows that you, unnatural monster,
are my son!

_Sir W._ Ods life! Hey! then there is something in the world to astonish
me, besides the reformation of my lady Worret.

_Lord A._ Shallow artifice! Think you I am weak enough to credit this