My King can refuse nothing to Allan Neville, the
faithful Loyalist. Title and fortune will be restored to me as my right;
but the only reward I will ask for my services shall be the pardon of my
enemies. The punishment of a state-criminal must not disgrace my
Isabel's nuptials. She has been to me the angel of consolation, and she
shall carry forgiveness and honour as a dower to her husband. And now,
Beaumont, while the relentings of my soul can refuse nothing to thy
admonitions, tell me, is there aught more that I ought to perform?"
From one of less acute sensibility, Dr. Beaumont would possibly have
required that he should have been the interpreter of his own purposes to
De Vallance, but he rightly considered, that very susceptible and ardent
characters, after they have forgiven, find it impossible to forget. When
such persons are brought to that proper state of mind, to return good
for evil, without either boasting of their lenity, or enumerating their
wrongs, the best way of inducing an oblivion of the past, is to avoid
such intercourse as may revive painful retrospection.
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