"That cannot be," said I, firmly; "you speak in kindness, but you know not what you promise. I am under a vow, Father,--I am under a vow."
"Well, my son, there are many vows meritorious. There are vows of penitence, and of chastity, and of abstinence--"
"Mine is none of these," said I, with a low, guttural utterance, as if I was biting each word I spoke.
"Not that, not that either!" cried I; then, dropping my voice to a low whisper, I said, "I have sworn a solemn oath to commit a murder! I know the full guilt of what is before me, I see all the consequences, both here and hereafter: but my word is pledged,--I have taken the oath with every ceremony that can give it solemnity; and--I 'll go through with it!"
"There is a mystery in all this," said the Padre; "you must recount the circumstances of this singular pledge, ere I can give you either comfort or counsel."
"I look for neither,--I hope for neither!" said I, wringing my hands; "but you shall hear my story,--you are the last to whom I can ever reveal it! I arrived at New Orleans about a fortnight ago, on a yacht cruise with a friend of mine, of whose name, at least, you may have heard,--Sir Dudley Broughton."
"The owner of a handsome schooner, the 'Firefly,'" said the Padre, with an animation on the subject not quite in keeping with his costume.
"The same; you are, then, acquainted with him?"
"Oh, no; I was accidentally standing on the wharf when his yacht came up the river at New Orleans."
"You did n't remark a young man on the poop in a foraging-cap, with a gold band round it?"
"That was me; how different was I then! Well, well, I 'll hasten on. We arrived at New Orleans, not quite determined whither next we should bend our steps; and hearing by mere accident of this Texan expedition, we took it into our heads we would join it. On inquiring about the matter, we found that a lottery was in progress, the prizes of which were various portions of equipment, horses, mules, baggage, negroes, and so on. For this--just out of caprice--we took several tickets; but as, from one cause or other, the drawing was delayed, we lingered on, going each day to the office, and there making acquaintance with a number of fellows interested in the expedition, but whose manner and style, I need scarcely say, were not good recommendations to intimacy. Broughton, however, always liked that kind of thing; low company, with him, had always the charm of an amusement that he could resign whenever he fancied. Now, as he grew more intimate with these fellows, he obtained admission into a kind of club they held in an obscure part of the town, and thither we generally repaired every evening, when too late for any more correct society. They were all, or at least they affected to be, interested in Texan expeditions; and the conversation never took any other turn than what concerned these objects; and if at first our Old World notions were shocked at their indifference to life,--the reckless disregard of honor and good faith they evinced,--we came by degrees to feel that the moral code of the Prairies permitted many things which were never sanctioned in more cultivated latitudes.