d she had
fallen on the evidences of such a temper. She pondered long on this
theme, and fancied how, under circumstances favourable to their
development, Mark's good qualities and courageous temper, had won for
him both fame and honour. "And here," exclaimed she, half aloud, "here,
he may live and die a peasant!" With a deep sigh, she threw herself
into a chair, and as if to turn her thoughts into some channel less
suggestive of gloom, she opened the letter Mark had given her. Scarcely,
however, had she cast her eyes over it, when she uttered a faint cry,
too faint, indeed, to express any mere sense of fear, but in an accent
in which terror and amazement were equally blended.

The epistle was a brief one--not more than a few lines--and she had read
it at a glance, before ever there was time to consider how far her
doing so was a breach of confidence; indeed, the intense interest of the
contents left little room for any self-examinings. It ran thus:--

"Dear Brother--No precipitation--no haste--nothing can be
done without France. T. has now good hopes from that
quarter, and if not 30,000, 20,000, or at least 15,000 will
be given, and arms for double the number. Youghal is talked
of as a suitable spot; and H. has sent charts, &c. over.
Above all, be patient; trust no rumours, and rely on us for
the earliest and the safest intelligence. L. will hand you
this. You must contrive to learn the cipher, as any
correspondence discovered would ruin all.

"Your's ever, and in the cause,

"H. R."

Here, then, was the youth she had been commiserating for his career of
lowly and unambitious hopes--here, the mere peasant! the accomplice of
some deep and desperate plot, in which the arms of France, should be
employed against the government of England. Was this the secret of his
pre-occupation and his gloom? Was it to concentrate his faculties on
such a scheme, that he lived this lonely and secluded life? "Oh, Mark,
Mark, how have I misjudged you!" she exclaimed, and as she uttered the
words, came the thought, quick as a lightning flash, to her mind--what
terrible hazards such a temperament as his must incur in an enterprise
like this--without experience of men or any knowledge of the world
whatever--without habitual prudence, or caution of any kind. The very
fact of his mistaking the letter--a palpable evidence of his unfitness
for trust. Reckless by nature--more desperate st