Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 215: what you’re looking at

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

198 REYNOLDS’ WORKS an abysm of moral degradation are you fallen, when you have to congratulate yourself that you had not the courage to become a murderer? Do you not see, sir, that the hand of Providence was in all this? You were villain enough to play the part of usurper, you would deprive your nephew of his just rights, you could for years retain him in a miserable captivity, treating him as a lunatic until you almost made him one, you could snatch him away from his mother, you could mercilessly separate the parent from her son, — all this were you villain enough to do, but you lacked the bold- ~ ness to strike the blow effectually. Do not think for a mo- ment, sir, that I believe it was through any merciful consider- ation on your part that you spared your nephew’s life. No, I understand your character full well. With all your iniquity you were a coward, and it was Heaven’s will that this coward- ice on your part should become the means of saving you from a still darker crime than any you have perpetrated. Take no credit to yourself that you are not a murderer; you possessed the will, but you lacked the courage. And now, sir, without further entreaty on your part, without further hesitation, sign this paper.” The invalid, overawed, dismayed, and crushed by the withering language addressed to him by one who spoke with the authority of an avenger, and vet an avenger who was showing mercy, — the invalid, we say, took the pen in his trembling hand, and prepared to sign. But he laid it down, and requested that another glass of the cordial might be given to him. This desire was promptly fulfilled, and under the influence of the stimulant, he affixed his name to the foot of the document, in a firmer hand than could have been anticipated. “ Now, sir,’ observed Lord Eagledean, consigninge the paper to his pocketbook, and taking up his hat, “I have little more to say. The promise I have given you shall be kept. No use shall be made of this document until I learn that you are safe upon the Continent. Nor am I so cruel and inhuman as to wish that you precipitate your de- parture in a manner that may endanger your life. Perhaps, now that you have made this atonement, — now that you are acquainted with all the worst that is to befall you, and that your mind must be relieved from the most torturing apprehensions as to the course which Adolphus might have Gomichbooks (E(0)