anded in
return; because you know, in seeking vengeance by blood, His law is
disobeyed, and His vengeance you would call upon yourself. Percy, you
will not, you dare not act as this overwhelming passion dictates."

"Dare not," repeated the young man, light flashing from his eye as if
his spirit chafed at that word, even from his brother, "dare not; you
mistake me, Herbert. I will not sit tamely down beneath an injury such
as this. I will not see that villain triumph without one effort to prove
to him that he is known, and make the whole world know him as he is."

"And would a hostile meeting accomplish this? Would that proclaim his
villainy, of whatever nature it may be, to the world? Would they not
rather side with him, their present minion, and even bring forward your
unjustifiable conduct as a fresh proof in his favour? How would they
give credit to the terms they may hear you apply to him, when even in
your family you speak not of the true cause of this strange agitation
and indignant anger."

Percy continued to pace the room for some minutes without answering.

"My honour has been insulted in the person of my sister," he muttered,
at length, as if speaking more to himself than to his brother; "and am I
to bear that calmly? Were the truth made known, would not the whole
world look on me with scorn as a spiritless coward, to whom the law of
honour was as nothing; who would see his sister suffering from the arts
of a miscreant, without one effort to revenge her?"

"The law of honour," replied Herbert, bitterly; "it is the law of blood,
of murder, of wilful, uncalled-for murder. Percy, my brother, banish
these guilty thoughts. Do not be one of those misguided beings who,
from that false deceiving plea, the law of honour, condemn whole
families to misery, and themselves, without preparation, without prayer,
nay, in the very act of disobeying a sacred commandment of their God,
rush heedless into His presence, into awful eternity."

He paused, but not vainly had he spoken. Percy gazed on his brother's
features with greater calmness, and more kindly, but still impetuously,
said--

"Would you then have me stand calmly by and behold my sister a suffering
victim to his arts, though actual sin, thank God, has been spared, and
thus permit that villain Alphingham to continue his course triumphant?"

"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay it," answered
Herbert, instantly, twining his arm within that of his b