we perish within an hour?--what if already the black cloud lowers over
us?--what if from our hopes and projects, and the fresh woven ties
which we have knit around our life, we are abruptly torn?--shall we be
the creatures or the conquerors of fate? Shall we be the exiled from
a home, or the escaped from a dungeon? Are we not as birds which look
into the Great Air only through a barred cage? Shall we shrink and
mourn when the cage is shattered, and all space spreads around us,--
our element and our empire? No; it was not for this that, in an elder
day, Virtue and Valour received but a common name! The soul, into
which that Spirit has breathed its glory, is not only above Fate,--it
profits by her assaults! Attempt to weaken it, and you nerve it with
a new strength; to wound it, and you render it more invulnerable; to
destroy it, and you make it immortal! This, indeed, is the Sovereign
whose realm every calamity increases, the Hero whose triumph every
invasion augments; standing on the last sands of life, and encircled
by the advancing waters of Darkness and Eternity, it becomes in its
expiring effort doubly the Victor and the King!"

Impressed by the fervour of his companion, with a sympathy almost
approaching to awe, Lord Ulswater pressed Mordaunt's hand, but offered
no reply; and both, excited by the high theme of their conversation,
and the thoughts which it produced, moved in silence from their post
and walked slowly homeward.




CHAPTER LXXXVII.

Is it possible?