274 THE SMUGGLER. 



the affection that a child ought to feel for a father, I beseech you 

 to do so, if you would save me from destruction and despair!" 



"I cannot! I cannot!" said Edith, clasping her hands. 

 4 'Oh ! why should you drive me to such painful disobedience? 

 In the first place, can I promise to love a man whom I hate, to 

 honour and obey one whom I despise, and whose commands 

 can never be for good? But still more, my father; you must 

 hear me out, for you force me to speak; you force me to tear 

 open old wounds, to go back to times long past, and to recur 

 to things bitter to you and to me. I cannot marry him, as I 

 told you once before; for I hold myself to be the wife of 

 another. 5 ' 



"Folly and nonsense!" cried Sir Robert Croyland, angrily; 

 " you are neither his wife, nor he your husband. What ! the 

 wife of a man who has never sought you for years; who 

 has cast you off, abandoned you, made no inquiry for you? 

 The marriage was a farce. You read a ceremony which you 

 had no right to read, jou took vows which you had no 

 power to take. The law of the land pronounces all such en- 

 gagements mere pieces of empty foolery!'' 



"But the law of God," replied Edith, "tells us to keep 

 vows that we have once made. To those vows, I called God 

 to witness with a true and sincere heart; and with the same 

 heart, and the same feelings, I will keep them ! I did wrong, 

 my father, I know I did wrong, and Henry did wrong too ; bufc 

 by what we have done we must abide; and I dare not, I can- 

 not, be the wife of another.'' 



"But, I tell you, you shall!" exclaimed her father, vehe- 

 mently. "I will compel you to be so; I will over-rule this 

 obstinate folly, and make you obedient, whether you choose it 

 or not." 



"Nay, nay; not so!" cried Edith. "You could not do, 

 you would not attempt, so cruel a thing!" 



" I will, so help me heav6nP exclaimed Sir Robert Croy- 

 land. 



" Then, thank heaven," answered his daughter, in a low 

 but solemn voice, "it is impossible! In this country, there is 

 no clergyman who would perform the ceremony contrary to my 

 expressed dissent. If I break the vows that I have taken, it 

 must be my own voluntary act ; for there is not any force that 

 can compel me so to do ; and I call heaven to witness, that 



