“I feel it will be impossible to quit England without seeing you and your sister, to thank you for the many, very many favors, of both a temporal and eternal nature, you have been the agents of conferring on me.  The cruel suggestions which I dreaded, and which it appears had reached the ears of my friends in Spain, have prevented my troubling your lordship of late unnecessarily with my concerns.  The consideration of a friend to your character (Mrs. Wilson) has removed the necessity of applying for your advice; she and her charming niece, Miss Emily Moseley, have been, next to yourselves, the greatest solace I have had in my exile, and united you will be remembered in my prayers.  I will merely mention here, deferring the explanation until I see you in London, that I have been visited by the wretch from whom you delivered me in Portugal, and that the means of ascertaining his name have fallen into my hands.  You will be the best judge of the proper steps to be taken; but I wish, by all means, something may be done to prevent his attempting to see me in Spain.  Should it be discovered to my relations there that he has any such intentions, it would certainly terminate in his death, and possibly in my disgrace.  Wishing you and your kind sister all possible happiness, I remain,

“Your Lordship’s obliged friend,

“JULIA FITZGERALD.”

“Oh!” cried the sister as she concluded the letter, “we must certainly see her before she goes.  What a wretch that persecutor of hers must be! how persevering in his villainy!”

“He does exceed my ideas of effrontery,” said the earl, in great warmth—­“but he may offend too far; the laws shall interpose their power to defeat his schemes, should he ever repeat them.”

“He attempted to take your life, brother,” said the lady shuddering, “if I remember the tale aright.”

“Why, I have endeavored to free him from that imputation,” rejoined the brother, musing, “he certainly fired pistol, but the latter hit my horse at such a distance from myself, that I believe his object was to disable me and not murder.  His escape has astonished me; he must have fled by himself into the woods, as Harmer was but a short distance behind me, admirably mounted, and the escort was up and in full pursuit within ten minutes.  After all it may be for the best he was not taken; for I am persuaded the dragoons would have sabred him on the spot, and he may have parents of respectability, or a wife to kill by the knowledge of his misconduct.”

“This Emily Moseley must be a faultless being,” cried the sister, as she ran over the contents of Julia’s letter.  “Three different letters, and each containing her praises!”

The earl made no reply, but opening the duke’s letter again, he appeared to be studying its contents.  His color slightly changed as he dwelt on its passages, and turning to his sister he inquired if she had a mind to try the air of Westmoreland for a couple of weeks or a month.