And who was his
witness in this monstrous charge?--your mother, Clara.
Yea, I stood as a criminal in her presence; and yet she
came forward to tender an evidence that was to consign
me to a disgraceful sentence. My vile prosecutor had,
moreover, the encouragement, the sanction of his colonel
throughout, and by him he was upheld in every contemptible
charge his ingenuity could devise. Do you not anticipate
the result?--I was found guilty, and dismissed the service.
"How acted my brother officers, when, previously to the
trial, I alluded to the damnable treachery of your father?
Did they condemn his conduct, or sympathise with me in
my misfortune?--No; they shrugged their shoulders, and
coldly observed, I ought to have known better than to
trust one against whom they had so often cautioned me;
but that as I had selected him for my friend, I should
have bestowed a whole, and not a half confidence upon
him. He had had the hypocrisy to pretend to them he had
violated no trust, since he had honourably espoused a
lady whom I had introduced to him as a cousin, and in
whom I appeared to have no other interest than that of
relationship.
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