The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 97: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

af THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. was no chance whatever of getting her into anything likea familiar conversation, so he gave up the attempt at once, say- ing; in an off-hand manner, as if, after all, it mattered not to im— ‘Well, well—be it so. I will now proceed to tell you the cir- cumstances connected with your coming into the possession of Captain Morton.” y the reflected light from the surface of the lake, he could just see sufficient of the beautiful features of Mabel to be well aware that her interest was painfully excited, even if her atti- tude had not convinced him of that fact, Ina voice to which he now evidently tried to impart solemnity and importance, he said— ‘* Captain Morton was lying wounded on the field of Waterloo. The fight was over, and he had no prospect but to die a lingering death on that plain of carnage, when one, who to all appearance was worse hurt than he, contrived to crawl close to him, and in agonized accents to speak..” Poor Mabel breathed thickly, and a faintness came over her, as she strove to say, without being able, ‘¢ And—that was my father.” | The sound she uttered was too inarticulate to be understood, and Solme continued his story, the truth from the falsehood of which the reader, from his pre-knowledge of the circumstances, will be easily able to detect. ‘‘This wounded man had in his arms a young child, in fact, a mere infant, and believing himself, in consequence of the severe nature of bis wounds, to be at the point of death, he sought to pace that infant in the first apparently kind and friendly hands e could find. He spoke to Captain Morton. He implored him by every tie of humanity, human and divine, to save the child from death upon that blood-stained field. The wounded Cap- tain Morton accepted the trust.” . ‘*'Yes, yes; and he who gave it him ?” “6 Dropped insensible upon the field of carnage, satisfied that he had done what He could under the circumstances for that child, who was his only care. Captain Morton was taken up by the British forces and carefully attended to at Brussels. He brought the child to England with him, and from that time forthwith he has, by all means in his power, sought to prevent those who had a right to know from hearing if she were alive or dead. I need not say, Mabel, that you are the child.” ‘* But tell me—Did he who gave the charge to Captain Morton live to know how nobly Morton had fulfilled his trust? Tell me that, and I will thank you from my soul.” ‘‘He was your father.” ‘‘My heart told meso. Oh, tell me, lives he now? Tell me that. Having told me so much, it would be fiendlike to tell me no more. Yet stay, why do [implore so much of you? Cap- tain Morton, finding what I know, will now tell meall. Yes, he, my second parent—he who has so nobly filled the place of father in my heart, he will now tell me all.” ‘* Hold! There is one difficulty in the way of Captain Morton comicbooks. com