Anastasius has been struck
down; we may lose him, which Heaven forbid; a Russian bullet may rob
us any day of dear Hugo too. In such a dire and grievous calamity, you
alone--only one single, precious life--would remain to keep the title
in our line. Do not, I beseech you, suffer it to continue thus. Come
home; marry, my son; give us another generation of descendants, and
assure the succession.
"I have never made any secret of my wishes in this respect; but I have
never told you the real reasons for my deep anxiety. It was my
father's earnest hope--he inherited it from his father, as I have from
mine--that the title might never be suffered to pass to his brother
Anastasius's heirs. My uncle had married in direct opposition to his
father's orders, in an age when filial disobedience was deemed a very
heinous offence, and he was cut off with a shilling. I might say that
he deserved no better; but he did not long survive to bear the penalty
of his fault. He left a child--a daughter, however--to whom I would
willingly have lent a helping hand, but she spurned all my overtures
in a way that grieved me greatly, although I never openly complained.
That branch of the family has continued estranged from us; and I am
certainly indisposed to reopen communications with them.
"Yet the existence of that branch cannot be ignored.
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