3 1 2 THE SMUGGLER. 



worthy of it. Your willingness has made the atonement, 

 Layton ; and I will deliver you from your difficulty." 



"You, Mr. Warde!" exclaimed Sir Edward Digby; "I 

 cannot suppose that you really have the power; or, perhaps, 

 after all, you do not know the whole circumstances." 



" Hush, hush, young man!" answered Warde, with a wave 

 of the hand; " I know all, I see all, where you know little or 

 nothing. You are a good youth, as the world goes; better 

 than most of your bad class and station; but these matters 

 are above you. Listen to me, Layton. Did not Edith toll 

 you that her father had worked upon her, by fears for his 

 safety, for his honour, for his life, perhaps?" 



" Yes, indeed," exclaimed Layton, eagerly, and with a 

 ray of hope beginning to break upon him. " Was the tale not 

 true, then?" 



" I guessed so," answered the old man. " I was sure that 

 would be the course at last. Nevertheless, the tale he told 

 was true: too true. It was forced from him by circumstances. 

 Yet, I have said I will deliver you from your difficulty, and 

 I will. Pursue your own course ; as you have commenced, go 

 on to the end. I ask you not now to give Edith back her 

 promises. Nay, I tell you, that her misery, her wretchedness, 

 ay, tenfold more than any you could suffer, would be the con- 

 sequence, if you did so. Let her go on firmly in her truth to 

 the last; but tell her, that deliverance will come* Now I 

 leave you ; but, be under no doubt. Your course is clear ; do 

 all you can by your own efforts to save her; but it is I who 

 must deliver her in the end." 



Without any further farewell, he turned and left the room; 

 and Sir Henry Layton and his friend remained for a minute or 

 two in thought. 



" His parting advice is the best," said Digby, at length, 

 "and doubtless you will follow it, Layton; but, of course, you 

 will not trust so far to the word of a madman as to neglect 

 any means that may present themselves." 



"He is not mad," answered Layton, shaking his head. 

 "When first he joined us in Canada, before the battle of 

 Quebec, I thought as you do; but he is not mad, Digby. 

 There are various shades of reason ; and there may be a slight 

 aberration in his mind from the common course of ordinary 

 thought. He may be wrong in his reasonings, rash in his 



