torrent, and he wept until the lamp of life flickered to extinction in
his panting breast.

'The mother whom he wished to save from the knowledge of his
degradation awoke suddenly from a short and disturbed sleep. She heard
the sobs and moans in the adjoining room, and recognised the voice of
her son. The next moment saw her seated upon his bed, her arms around
the weeping boy. All sense of her own sickness, of her weak state, was
gone. She was only conscious of his intense mental agony.

'He placed his aching head upon her faithful breast, he wound his
trembling arms around her slender neck, and poured into her
sympathizing ear the terrible tale of his wrongs,--how he had been
falsely accused of the commission of a heinous crime, his protestations
of innocence disregarded, and had been sentenced by his father to
receive a punishment more galling to him than death; that he had been
tempted to rebel against his father's authority, and curse the hand
that smote him--to hate where he had loved with such fond idolatry.

'The good mother listened attentively, and weighed every circumstance.
The frankness of his unreserved confession convinced her of its truth.
When all the sad tale was told, she took him in her pitying arms, and
told him that, though all the world should believe him guilty, she felt
that he was innocent from her very soul.

'"God bless you, dearest, best mother," sobbed the poor boy, covering
her hand with kisses. "I knew you would not condemn me. I never have,
nor ever will give you cause to be ashamed of me. But my father--it
seems unnatural, monstrous that he should believe me guilty at once. I
shall never get over it. It crushes my heart; it presses out my life.