“It was only my duty, Corbet,” she replied, “to a true-hearted and faithful servant, for such he was to our family.  I could not forget the esteem in which his master, my dear husband, held him, nor the confidence which he never failed, and justly, to repose in him.  Go immediately to him, for he has expressed much anxiety to see you.”

His brother, indeed, found him hovering on the very brink of the grave.  What their conversation was, we know not, unless in so far as a portion of it at least may be inferred from the subsequent circumstances of our story.  After having spent about an hour with him, his brother, who, it seems, had some pressing commissions to execute for Sir Thomas, was obliged to leave him for a time, but promised to return as soon as he could, get them discharged.  In the meantime, poor Corbet sank rapidly after Charles’s departure, and begged, with a degree of anguish that was pitiable, to see Lady Gourlay, as he had something, he said, of the utmost importance to communicate to her.  Lady Gourlay, however, had gone out, and none of the family could give any opinion as to the period of her return; whilst the dying man seemed to experience a feeling that amounted almost to agony at her absence.  In this state he remained for about three hours, when at length she returned, and found him with the mild and ghastly impress of immediate death visible in his languid, dying eyes, and hollow countenance.

“They tell me you wish to see me, Corbet,” she said—­“If there is anything that can be done to soothe your mind, or afford you ease and comfort in your departing hour, mention it, and, if it be within our power, it shall be done.”

He made an effort to speak, but his voice was all but gone.  At length, after several efforts, he was able to make, her understand that he wished her to bend down her head to him; she did so; and in accents that were barely, and not without one or two repetitions, intelligible, he was able to say, “Your son is living, and Sir Thomas knows——­”

Lady Gourlay was of a feminine, gentle, and quiet disposition, in fact, a woman from whose character one might expect, upon receiving such a communication, rather an exhibition of that wild and hysteric excitement which might be most likely to end in a scream or a fainting fit.  Here, however, the instincts of the defrauded heart of the bereaved and sorrowing mother were called into instant and energetic life.  The physical system, instead of becoming relaxed or feeble, grew firm and vigorous, and her mind collected and active.  She saw, from the death-throes of the man, that a single moment was not to be lost, and instantly, for her mouth was still at his ear, asked, in a distinct and eager voice, “Where, Corbet, where? for God’s mercy, where? and what does Sir Thomas know?”

The light and animation of life were fast fading from his face; he attempted to speak again, but voice and tongue refused to discharge their office—­he had become speechless.  Feeling conscious, however, that he could not any longer make himself understood by words, he raised his feeble hand, and attempted to point as if in a certain direction, but the arm fell powerlessly down—­he gave a deep sigh and expired.