To see my children all untimely falling about me, while I continue a wretched survivor in the midst of ruin! May all the curses that ever sunk a soul fall heavy upon the murderer of my children.

May he live, like me, to see--' 'Hold, Sir,' replied my son, 'or I shall blush for thee.

How, Sir, forgetful of your age, your holy calling, thus to arrogate the justice of heaven, and fling those curses upward that must soon descend to crush thy own grey head with destruction! No, Sir, let it be your care now to fit me for that vile death I must shortly suffer, to arm me with hope and resolution, to give me courage to drink of that bitterness which must shortly be my portion.' 'My child, you must not die: I am sure no offence of thine can deserve so vile a punishment.

My George could never be guilty of any crime to make his ancestors ashamed of him.' 'Mine, Sir,' returned my son, 'is, I fear, an unpardonable one.

When I received my mother's letter from home, I immediately came down, determined to punish the betrayer of our honour, and sent him an order to meet me, which he answered, not in person, but by his dispatching four of his domestics to seize me.