"
"Her lover!" interrupted Lord Harwold, turning on his heel.
"Her defender, sir!" repeated Thaddeus, with a tremendous frown; "and
shame and sorrow will pursue that son who requires a stranger to
supply his duty."
"Wretch!" cried the earl, forgetting his assumed loftiness, and
advancing passionately towards Thaddeus, with his stick held up; "how
dare you address such language to an English nobleman?"
"By the right of nature, which holds her laws over all mankind,"
returned Thaddeus, calmly looking on the raised stick. "When an
English nobleman forgets that he is a son, he deserves reproach from
his meanest vassal."
"You see, my lord," cried Harwold, sliding behind his father, "what
we bring on ourselves by harboring these democratic foreigners! Sir,"
added he, addressing himself to Thaddeus, "your dangerous principles
shall be communicated to Government. Such traitors ought to hanged."
Sobieski eyed the enraged little lord with contempt; and turning to
the earl, who was again going to speak, he said, in an unaltered
tone, "I cannot guess, Lord Tinemouth, what is the reason of this
attack on me. I came hither by accident; I found the countess ill;
and, from respect to her excellent qualities, I remained with her
until her eyes were closed forever. She desired to see her daughter
before she died,--what human heart could deny a mother such a
request?--and Pembroke Somerset, her kinsman, undertook to bring Lady
Albina to the Abbey.
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