第118页 / 共483页

You come to us now to share a misery which nothing can alleviate;

yet your presence will, I hope, revive our father, who seems

sinking under his misfortune; and your persuasions will induce

poor Elizabeth to cease her vain and tormenting

self-accusations.-Poor William! he was our darling and our

pride!"

Tears, unrestrained, fell from my brother's eyes; a sense of

mortal agony crept over my frame. Before, I had only imagined the

wretchedness of my desolated home; the reality came on me as a

new, and a not less terrible, disaster. I tried to calm Ernest; I

enquired more minutely concerning my father, and here I named my

cousin.

"She most of all," said Ernest, "requires consolation; she

accused herself of having caused the death of my brother, and

that made her very wretched. But since the murderer has been

discovered-"