the end of the earth, and bring him to justice before God and man.




CHAPTER IX.

TITE TAKES HIS DEPARTURE FOR THE SOUTH SEA.


High above all this hypocrisy, this intrigue, this selfishness and
dissimulation, there was something more pure and good. It was love, pure
and simple, binding the thoughts and hearts of Mattie Chapman and young
Tite. That love which forgets everything else in its truth and purity,
had been gently binding their young affections together. And now nothing
could separate them.

What sweet joys and touching sorrows are mingled with the wonderful
history of love. How surely it marks its objects. It seeks its most
precious captive in the strongest and bravest of hearts. Love has
dethroned kings, built up empires, set great nations at war, and made
statesmen weep with sorrow. Yea, it has made the mightiest to unbend,
and brought them bowing before its altar. It holds its capricious empire
in every heart, prompts our ambition, guides and governs our actions,
makes us heroes or cowards, and carries us hoping through the world.

It was love, then, that was holding its court on the occasion I am about
to describe. It was one of those bright and breezy spring mornings, when
Nature seems to have decked herself in her brightest colors, giving such
a charm to the banks of the Hudson. The young, fresh leaves were out,