"
"Oh, my father!" replied Eustace; "kill me with your weapon rather than
your words. By the unimpeached honour of my blessed mother, I am no
traitor."
"Who spoke the accusation," returned the Colonel, "which I returned to
hear, and to curse the hour of thy birth?--'Twas not the light reproach
of petulant folly, anxious to shift the shame of defeat from its own
misconduct.' The speaker was the wise, magnanimous Hopton."
"But even wisdom and magnanimity may mistake."
"Was there any intercourse which he interdicted, and you clandestinely
continued?"
"There was one who wound himself round my heart by ties which I wanted
firmness to dissolve, and I greatly fear he has been a traitor to his
country and me."
"No expletives; no qualifying terms; no diminutive appellations, for
crimes that involve a kingdom's fate. Under the influence of this man,
you have been rapacious, licentious, rash, regardless of subordination."
"I have."
"And not a traitor!--Gracious Author of my existence, do I live to hear
such perversion of language from my Eustace? When all depended on the
honour and discipline of those who maintained the King's cause, my son
commits crimes which disgrace his religion, his profession, and his
principles, yet tells me he is no traitor.
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