"
And then the ingenuous son of Therese Sobieski proceeded, in the same
modest but firm tone, to remind his father that "though the laws of
the national church wherein he had married her would have given their
son every right over any inheritance from either parent which
belonged to Poland, yet as no opportunity had subsequently occurred
for repeating the sacred ceremony by the laws of his father's church,
her son could make no legal claim whatever on a rood of the Somerset
lands in England."
Sir Robert, with unspeakable emotion, clasped the hand of his first-
born when he had made, and with such tender delicacy, this conclusive
remark, and which, indeed, had never presented itself to his often
distractedly apprehensive mind, either before or after the death of
Pembroke's mother; even had it done so, it would not have afforded
any quiet to his soul from the internal worm gnawing there. His act
had been guilt towards Therese Sobieski and her confiding innocence.
And it was not the discovery of any omitted legislative ordinance
that could have satisfied the accusing conscience in his own bosom,
hourly calling out against him. But the heaven-consecrated son of
that profaned marriage had found the reconciling point--had poured in
the healing balm; and the spirit of his father was now at peace.
In cordial harmony, therefore, with this generous opinion, so
opportunely expressed by the sincere judgment of the last of the
house of Sobieski, when so united to that of Somerset, and with a
corresponding simplicity of purpose, interwoven by the sweet
reciprocity of mutual confidence, the remainder of the evening passed
pleasantly between the happy father and his no less happy sons.
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