"
This duty done to one beloved child, he then turned to anticipate a
second converse to his comfort with the other.
That sickness which is the consequence of mental suffering usually
vanishes with its cause. Long before the dinner-hour of this happy
day, Thaddeus, refreshed by the peaceful and lengthened sleep from
which he awoke late in the morning, rose as if with a renewed
principle of life. Quitting his room, he met his glad father in the
passage-gallery, who instantly conducted him into a private room,
where that now tranquillized parent soon brought him to relate, with
every sentence a deepening interest, the rapid incidents of his brief
but eventful career. The voice of fame had already blazoned him
abroad as "the plume of war, with early laurels crowned;" but it was
left to his own ingenuous tongue to prove, in all the modest
simplicity of a perfect filial confidence, that the most difficult
conflicts are not those which are sustained on the battle-field.
Sir Robert listened to him with affection, admiration, and delight,--
ah, with what pride in such a son! He was answering the heartfelt
detail with respondent gratefulness to that Almighty Power which had
shed on his transgressing head such signal "signs of heavenly
amnesty!" when the door opened, and a servant announced that Mr.
Somerset was in the library.
Thaddeus started up with joy in his countenance; but Sir Robert
gently put him down again.
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