in a scene
of strife and blasphemy, been convicted of homicide, escaped from the
sentence, and, lurking in by-lanes and accursed places, fell sick, and
wrote to his brother to come and save him from infamy and death.

How could he wound the spotless ears of Rosalie by the tale of his
brother's guilt and shame? He had never spoken to her of his existence,
the subject was so exquisitely painful, for he believed himself for ever
separated from him, and why should his blasted name cast a shadow over
the heaven of his domestic happiness?

Alter having raised his miserable brother from the gulf of degradation
in which he had plunged, and given him the means of establishing himself
in some honorable situation, which he promised to seek, he returned to
find his home occupied by strangers, his wife and child fled, his
happiness wrecked, and his peace destroyed. The deluded and half frantic
Theresa, believing him to be her husband, appealed to him, by the memory
of their former love and wedded felicity, to forgive the steps she had
taken that she might assert the claims of her deserted boy. Maddened by
the loss of the wife whom he adored, he became for the time a maniac;
and so terrible was his indignation and despair, the unhappy victim of
his brother's perfidy fled trembling and dismayed from his presence.

In the calmer moments that succeeded the first paroxysms of his agony,
Henry thought of his brother and of the extraordinary resemblance they
bore to each other, and the mystery which frenzied passion had at first
veiled from his eyes was partially revealed to his understanding. Could
he then have seen her, and could she prove that she was the wife of
Gabriel, he would have protected her with a brother's care and
tenderness. But his first thought was for Rosalie,--the young, the
beloved, the deceived, the fugitive Rosalie, of whose flight no clue
could be discovered, no trace be found. The servants could throw no
light on the mystery, for she had left in the darkness and silence of
night. They only knew that Peggy disappeared at the same time, and was
probably her companion. This circumstance afforded a faint relief to
Henry's distracted mind, for he knew Peggy's physical strength and moral
courage, as well as her remarkable attachment to his lovely and gentle
wife. But whither had they gone? The natural supposition was, that she
would throw herself on the protection of her step-mother, as the only
person on whom she had