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It was the Kiwie face upon which, the gentle moon
beams bid lingered tor a moment before the eyes seemed to close in dissolution.
There could ho no doubt — no error for an in
stant. Captain Markham felt that he gazed once more upi,n the pale, chas.ened, intellectual countenance of tho Bum whose only nanio in his memory consisted of a
sentence—A Mystery in Scarlet. Thou Bertha seized Markham by the arm and led hhu forward. " Behold ! father, behold 1" she said. " This is my preserver, my friend, my protector, my fecund father, when you seemed gone from me for ever. 1'ai.lier, you will not blame mo that I love him r" Bertha was resolved that there should be no doubt from this, almost the first minute of her restoration to
her father, concerning her feelings towards Captain
Markham. She was too proud to dissimulate.
She would nut give herself tho pain of acting a
single moment's indifference towards one so dear to Iter. So, even « ith the tears of emotion in her eyes, and with all the excitement of that strange and unexpected reunion with tho father whom sho had thought sepa- ratf d from her by death, she encompassed Markham in
her arms. And aiain, with something of triumph in her tones, sho spoke. " "\iMth his life, father, he protected my life. He is good and brave, and truthful and noble. Father, you
will not blnmo me that I love him ;"
There was a flush upon the face of the Mystery in Scarlet.
He held out his hand to Markham. Ho spoke slowly and with difficulty. " Surely I know you, sir r" " You should know me," said Markham. Ho bent down more closely to that sad pale-looking countenance. " I was the officer," ho Kiid, " who commanded the firing parly at liow."
"Ah!" " You do know me now i" " You did your duty, sir, and you performed your promise to me." " I have striven to do so, and I have happily suc ceeded, so far that I have saved her. The performance of that promise has made me an outcast and a wan derer. It has taken from me every hope I had on earth. It has deprived me of tho profession I loved. It has abruptly brought to an end a career in which I
might have risen to rank ana fortune." " Alas ! alas 1" Markham smiled. He took Bertha's hands in both his own. " But it has recompensed me," he said, " with a
jewel of such priceless value that wero tho world bar tered for its possession it were cheaply purchased. "
Tho Mystery in Scarlet fixed his languid eyes upon the face of the young officer. " Yes," he said, " you do love her, and I die con tent." " No, father, no !" cried Bertha. " You will live—
live to bo happy with us for many and many a sum
mer day to come." " 1 would fain do so, but I am weak." " I fancy, sir," said Markham, " it must only bo from loss of blood ; for had your wounds been mortal we should scarcely have had tho happiness of hearing
your voice this night." " I thought myself killed," said the Mystery in Scarlet, " and yet 1 found that but one bullet had struck me of nil that volley. It must have been turned a:>ide on my very breast, and the shock and tho loss of blood, as you say, brought on a mimic death." " I thought I left you not until the last breath of life had departed from you in the gardens at Kew."
" No doubt it seemed so, and I know not how long I lay insensible ; but I was awakened, as if from some troubled dream, by cool grateful rain splashing on my
face." " The rain set in immediately," said Markham, " after the—the —why should I scruple to call it by its correct name?—attompied assassination." " I know not how long I had lain there," continued the Mystery in Scarlet ; " but, feeling wonderfully re
freshed and better, I staggered to my feet, and with great difficulty made my way to the river, whore, weak and faint, I got a buy to row me up to London."
" A terrible disappointment awaited you." " It did. 1 not only found the old house which I had occupied at "Westminster burnt to tho ground, but it
had implicated in its destruction tho Red Cap inn, which is now a heap of blackened ruins."
"And then, sir?" " Then, with despair at my heart, I knew not which way to turn or what to do. Nothing possessed me hut that Bertha had perished in that dreadful fire, and it
was more mechanically than from any set purpose that I camo hero to die."
" Surely bounteous Providence, sir, directed you to the same abode where Bertha had found a refuge."
_ " It may be so, but I was familiar with this old pala tial residence."
" Indeed!-"
" Yes ; months ago I had n:ude my way into it, and it
pleased me with a dreamy kind of melancholy to wan
der through its deserted chambers, to linger in its an cient banquet halls, and to gaze in silent abstraction upon its faded pictures. I loved to think that possibly
the time might come when, if my right were denied to rue, yet my child Bertha might reawaken the life and light of the ancient pile, and that, as queen of this realm, she might make old Whitehall onco again a
scene of courtly splendour." The voice of the Mystery in Scarlet had risen higher and higher as he spoke. Exhausted then by the effort he had made, he closed his eyes and seemed to breathe with difficulty.
"What does ho inean'r" whispered the Marquis of Charlton to Markham. The young officer wns at a loss how to reply to this pertinent question. '5 What does my father mean:" likewise asked ; Bertha.


She too was in as great a state of ignorance with regard to that important and tremendous state 'secret I towards the revelation of which tie- words of the Mys tery in Scarlet tended as the Marquis of Charlton. Markham looked confusedly from one to tho other of them. He only replied ambiguously. " He means what ho says." There was not much to be gathered from these words, : but before any further questions could bo asked ! Bertha's father again spoke. " Yes," he said, " I felt myself at homo here, and more than ever at home, since' I hid beneath this roof the documents which prove me to be what I am, and

foiled." " There is some meaning in all this," said the Mar quis of Charlton, " which I cannot comprehend, or else—"
Scarlet. " No, sir, I am not mad. I do not know who you are, but you wear a soldier's uniform, and, being hero,
I promise you a dukedom, sir—a dukedom for your true allegiance to your true sovereign." " Hush ! oh ! hush "' whispered Markham. Tho Mystery in Scarlet partially raised himself up and glanced about him. "It is time," ho said, "it is time that she should
know all. In a cabinet in one of the rooms of this old palaco I hid the documentary proofs of my true birth and position, but I was wont out by hope de ferred—that sickness of the soul—and I saw tho man, the usurper who sits upon the throne of these realms.
He ottered me half a million in monev and a German duchy, and I thought my child would be happier in that humbler and more secure haven than even on tho throne of England." "Good Heavens, sir!" exclaimed tho Marquis of Charlton. " Who and what arc Your" " Your king !" exclaimed the Mystery in Scarlet, as
he suddenly sprang from the couch and drew himself up to his full height, with his hands elevatrd above his
head. " Your king ! Your king, sir ! And every inch a
king!"
CHAPTER XLYIII.
MB. SOUlils's DISCOMF1TU11E.
"Father! father!" exclaimed Bertha, "what wild dream is this ? Oh ! look at mo in your old way, and
speak to me in your old wav," " My child." *
"Father, father, do not look so wildly. Let us leave kings and thronos and princes to their own anxious days and sleepless nights. Father, father, why do you look thus ? why do you apeak thus r" It is some dream that thus disturbs your fancy. Father, father, cast it from you!" " A dream ! a dream !" The Mystery in Scarlet sank on the couch again and rested his head upon his hands. " I should have starved," he said, " starved to death
hero, in one of my own royal palaces, but that, by some strange chance, Heaven only Knows how it came there,
I found some food in one of its chambers." " That food was mine, father, mine. It was brought hither for me. Oh! grateful, grateful! Am I not grateful that it supplied your wants ? Oh ! my
father!" " But how ? now f" " He brought me here—he, my preserver. Look at him again, father. Wo escaped from tho burning house at Westminster on to the river, and through storm and through tempest he upheld mo and saved me. We found a refuge here, and it was food that ho procured for my sustenance which has saved you. Markham, Markl'am, your devotion was doubly blest, for you saved tho father as well as the child. Markham ! my
Markham!" " This is most strange," said the Mystery in Scarlet. " I did wander into a room oucc and saw somo one sit
ting at a table with a light."
" It was I," said Markham. " Alas! I was too confused and di/r.y to know yon." " I was keeping watch over Bertha's" slumbers {u the adjoining room." " 0 Heaven ! and I missed tire happiness of know ing that!"
" Lament it not, sir, lament it not. All is now well, and I have but one counsel te give you. It is a counsel
which will be echoed by the dear voice of Bertha." "Counsel:-' What caunfel? True, true. You aro
right, sir, you arc right. Wo make you a privy coun cillor. What have you to say to the king t
" Sir, I have to counsel you to be happy, not great. Chance has placed in my hands great wealth, for in a
secret recess of an old cabinet there was a hoard of
jewels, to which without doubt your birth entitles you to the possession of. Let me, then, counsel you, sir, to leave this land with mo and with Bertha for ever. Wo will make a fair and beautiful and happy homo in an other and softer clime than ibis, and these vapours and
dreams of ambition will pass away, whilo tho old pla titude that contentment is better than a throne ..ill commend itself, for its very simplicity, to all our hearts." " Yes, father," interposed Bertha. *' It ib not for your.-clf that you have coveted this crown—this un easy diadem that makes the head so acho that wears
it."" Xo, no ; never for myRolf.'' "For me, father f for mo ?" " Yes, my Bertha, for you." "Then, father, if I tell you how much happier I
shall be without it —"
" No, no, no. You do not know." " Yes, father, I do know. I begin now to divine I the secret of your life. There is something in your ' birth, something in your lineage, whicfi makes yon' frol
and think that tho crown of England is your owu by
right." "I know it!" cried tho Mysiery in Scarlet, "f. know it ! I am the son of—"
" Hold !" cried Captain Markham. " For your life's sake, hold ! Hold, sir, for tho sake of tho peace and serenity of your after life ! Not another word !"
"Sirf" " Xot another word, I sav. Not another word!" "Sir, what right!"
" Every right. I have passed through the peril. 1
have endured the ordeal and escaped, and I demand that you should not burden another soul with tho perilous secret —a secret that left you weltering in your blood in the garden at Kew—a secret which presented to my lips tho poisoned cup-*a secret which brought ' me out to die, and would nave left mo in my b'.oodj judicially murdered for an imputed crime which never crossed my imagination. Xo, sir, you shall not—you dare not burden another soul with it. It has gouo far enough already. Let it rest with me. And as for you, ! Marquis of Charlton, beliuvo that vou have heard the ravings of a disturbed spirit whicli believed itself a
I king, and thcro an end." The Mystery in Scarlet was about to speak again,
] but Bertha flung her arms about him and interrupted him." Markham is rielit, father, Markham is right. There has been peril enough, and there have been
tears enough and anguish enough already, and more than enough. Oh! father, we will have no mord. Fly, oh ! try with its. Wo want but' your consent that Toil should "bo peaceful, serene, and evermore happy.*' " I dare not. I cannot. My heart cries out aloud. I am what I am. I cannot "unking myself. Farq- well, gentlemen," farewell ! I r-cek not your allegiance, nor will I, as this brave and noble gentleman re marks, burden another living soul with the secret of tho Mystery in Scarlet. Come to me, my child, and wo will let them go—let thorn go." Then Bertha clasped her hands. Then sho shook with a terrible emotion. " Father ! Markhpm ! Markham ! father !" Sho turned to ono, and then sho turned to the other. Then, with a cry liko that of some affrighted bird,
she flung herself upon Markham' s breast. "With you, with you, whatever may betide! With you to the world's end for ever and for evermore !
With you—with you for ever !" The Mystery in Scarlet shook like a leaf in
autumn. "Alone! alouo!" he gasped. "Go! go! Alone and desolate ! lifo a pilgrimage ! the world a waste !" " Oh ! sir," said Markham, " what are crowns and sceptres, and crmincd robes, and cringing courtiers, ana life, and lip-service, and all the hollow cheats—"
" Dreams !" shouted the Mystery in Scarlet. " Dreams and vapours ! To my heart, my children !
To my heart ! I shall bo yet a king—a king of your affections and your dearest loves. Wo will away at once. Away ! Away ! The papers! Where are the papers ? Here ! hero ! The secret of my birth, tlio
evidenco of my destinv. Tho lantern ! tho lantern,
Bertha! Quick 1 quick'!" " Here, father, here !" "To tho flames' To tlio flames with them! So perish, once and for ever, tho dream of a life; ; but tho awakening is yet more beautiful. 1 may not bo a king,
but I am still a father." Thero was a 1 '. '■nu-hiug noise at thii nion.e-.'.t

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