"I am sure you will, my father," said Leonora, pressing his hand to her lips. "I do so long to see my sister, that I feel quite sad at the delay; and I so long to show how I will love you, and the Countess, and Lady Augusta, that to be obliged to stay here among murderers and wicked men is very sad." "It is indeed, my child; but we will pray that God will overrule it to your advantage. And now I must ask you to hasten my departure, or else my wife and your sister will grow quite alarmed: we have a long way to travel, and shall have plenty of time to speak by the way." "You must then be blindfolded again--you will not fear your guide's faith now?" said the young girl, as she drew the scarf across her arm and folded it, with a sad smile. "I shall not, indeed; but first I must take a parting glance at my poor misguided brother. Ah, Leonora! you cannot think what different feelings arise in my mind as I look on that cold form. As each of my race fall away in their prime, a link is broken--a blank, nothing can fill, made; and it seems like a warning voice to me that my turn must soon come!--that I should be preparing for my last change. I hope I am prepared, Leonora: and how I hope we shall all be brought to the narrow pleasant paths of righteousness! To-day I have lost and found a brother; and it makes my heart bleed to think what and who he is. But I forgot--you know nothing of these things: how much I seem to have before me!" Intently, for some time after he had ceased speaking, did the Earl gaze on the face that was dead. His thoughts are unutterable--not to be written: that they were intense and burning his face showed; the expression sometimes approached to that of torture,--as if he was forced to credit what he least wished to believe. He laid his hand on the marble brow of his brother; its coldness shot a thrill through his frame; and then he turned away as though utterly cast down, and sickened in heart and soul, and with a choking voice bade Leonora bind the scarf across his eyes, glad to have the sight veiled from his view. As he stooped to allow the maiden to do so, she heard him sigh deeply; and, as she bound the Indian fabric across his eyes, she saw more than one heavy tear glide down his cheek, and drop on the folds of her scarf. She felt an answering weakness within herself, and the tears flowed faster down her cheek, as she took her parent's hand and led him on silently. CHAPTER XIX. "Farewell! if ever fondest prayer For other's weal availed on high, Mine will not all be lost in air, But waft thy name beyond the sky. 'Twere vain to speak, to weep, to sigh; Oh! more than tears of blood can tell, When wrung from guilt's expiring eye, Are in that word--farewell!--farewell!"--_Byron._