He scarce can know his father--the love, the reverence of a son it would have been such joy to teach.

Left to my sole care, could I instil sentiments other than those a father's lips bestowed on me?
Could I instruct him in aught save love, devotion to his country, to her rights, her king?
I have done this so gradually, my friend, that for the burst of loyalty, of impetuous gallantry, which answered Sir Robert Keith's appeal, I was well nigh unprepared.

My father, my noble father breathes in my boy; and oh, Mary, better, better far lose him on the battle-field, struggling for Scotland's freedom, glorying in his fate, rejoicing, blessing me for lessons I have taught, than see him as my husband, as my brother--alas! alas! that I should live to say it--cringing as slaves before the footstool of a tyrant and oppressor.

Had he sought it, had he loved--treated me as a wife, Mary, I would have given my husband all--all a woman's duty--all, save the dictates of my soul, but even this he trampled on, despised, rejected; and shall I, dare I then forget, oppose the precepts of that noble heart, that patriot spirit which breathed into mine the faint reflection of itself ?--offend the dead, the hallowed dead, my father--the heart that loved me ?" She paused, in strong, and for the moment overpowering, emotion.

The clear, rich tones had never faltered till she spoke of him beloved even in death--faltered not, even when she spoke of death as the portion of her child; it was but the quivering of lip and eye by which the anguish of that thought could have been ascertained.