At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 224: what you’re looking at

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

- aH at uf a ea’, 7 ’ » “ me / 4 > i oO ay Ls.” a fi ‘ , wy - « ‘ee ae . “<< ¢ ; 7 7 = a ee”.60OUlre ®t OR OOF 2 OFS Se e Pp AT A GIRL’S MERCY. 213 did they ever get him, Ned? How did they ever suspect him of doing good to the army against them? How did they ever dare to come for him to the dear - Old Hall and take him away from there as though he were a criminal? I don’t see how one of the men on the place could have let them do it.’ “But they did not do it, Nan.” He was arguing within himself whether he should tell the girl the whole of the story or not. She had proved her bravery, but he would not add one iota to the struggle she had endured, and must still en- dure, if she remained through the terrible months that were coming, when the struggle would be fiercer and the horrors greater than they had been even et. - “They did not go to the old Hall, Nan. There is not aman therein your father’s employ but would have died for him rather than have let that happen, But they took him in the city, they captured him by strategy where open action must have failed. They were guided and posted by one of the greatest vil- lains the world could have borne. This man vou left to his fate to-night is as nothing compared to the villainy of that other man who betrayed your father into the hands of the enemy, and has done all that was in his power to injure him in the past few months. He would have committed any act of villainy to win you—to win my brave, noble girl, too high above him for even his thought to rest upon. Howard Blake? Yes, Nan, none other than he, and could there have been some power to have stopped him in the beginning there would have been more peace and more happiness in your old home to-day © than there is. He would revenge himself upon you for your slights of him, for so he said when he was dying, Nan, for he is dead. Thrown from his horse and hurt to death, but living long enough to.-tell the villainy of his life. He would win you, Nan. and would so bring down the pride that had always been his hate—he, the unlawful son of a man as cowardly as himself—and he bent his life to the winning, thinking no villainy too cowardly or too cruel to the end he wished to gain. He has been guilty of more | (E(e) co Pe) icbooks