midnight
I must wander forth an impoverished and dishonoured man , without even the means of sustaining life , far less wealth sufficient to counterbalance the infamy which my countrymen , both those whom I desert and those whom I join , will attach to the name of the political renegade . It is not to be thought of . And yet , what choice remains between this lot and the ignominious scaffold ? Nothing can save me but reconciliation with these men ; and , to accomplish this , I have promised to Langley that Isabella shall marry him ere midnight , and to Mareschal , that she shall do so without compulsion . I have but one remedy betwixt me and ruin -- her consent to take a suitor whom she dislikes , upon such short notice as would disgust her , even were he a favoured lover -- But I must trust to the romantic generosity of her disposition ; and let me paint the necessity of her obedience ever so strongly , I can not overcharge its reality . '' Having finished this sad chain of reflections upon his perilous condition , he entered his daughter 's apartment with every nerve bent up to the support of the argument which he was about to sustain . Though a deceitful and ambitious man , he was not so devoid of natural affection but that he was shocked at the part he was about to act , in practising on the feelings of a dutiful and affectionate child ; but the recollections , that , if he succeeded , his daughter would only be trepanned into an advantageous match , and that , if he failed , he himself was a lost man , were quite sufficient to drown all scruples .