while; these sudden
changes and so much exposure has rendered you weak. Come, my dear,
come."

And the poor girl, all trembling and pale, suffered her mother to lead
her to her chamber, where a gentle anodyne soothed her nerves, and she
soon fell to sleep. Had her mother not been little better than blind,
she would have easily read her daughter's heart, and have seen that she
loved with all her woman's soul the man who was that day on trial for
his life. What mattered it to her that he was nameless, a wanderer, a
slaver? She loved him, and that covered each and all faults, however
heinous in the sight of the law. She felt that it was not the outward
associations which made a man. She had looked beneath the surface of his
soul, and had seen the pure crystal depth of his manly heart--frank,
open, and as truthful as day itself. To her he was noble, chivalric and
true, and if all the world had blamed him, if all had called him guilty,
her bosom would have been open to receive him!

Could he have realized this as he lay in chains on board his elder
brother's ship--could he have known that he was really loved by that
fair, sweet and gentle creature, how it would have lightened the weight
of the iron bands he bore--how cheered his drooping spirits.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE BROTHERS.

Now commenced a struggle in the bosom of Robert Bramble. It was some
hours before he could recover from the first blush of amazement at the
strange discovery he had made. Not to have had something of a brother's
feelings come over him at such a time, he must have been less than
human; and it was between the promptings of blood, of early
recollections of childhood, before he grew to that age when his
disposition, ruined by indulgence, had led him so bitterly to oppress
and injure his brother as to drive him from the home of their youth, and
the recollection of those little more matured years, when jealousy at
his superior aptness, strength, and success with "cousin Helen," had
made him hate him.

It was impossible for the man to forget the bitterness of the child;
besides, had not the same spirit of rivalry ripened, until he found his
brother in manhood still his successful rival with Helen Huntington? The
reader will remember that they had all three been children together, and
that the last time Charles had looked back at his home, as he started
away from it, his eye detected the little form of Helen, where she stood
gazing after him.