454 THE BARONET'S DAUGHTER. 



no longer require you to confess your villany ; it cannot serve, it is 

 useless, and it might cause you to expend lies, for which, if you out- 

 live this night, you may have occasion." 



" Wherefore, then, the trouble you have taken to arouse me from 

 sleep ? What do you want ?" 



" Vengeance your blood your life Willoughby now," and he 

 drew forth a dagger and dashed it, swift as lightning, at the heart of 

 his son-in-law. 



Willoughby seized the wrist of the baronet with his left hand at 

 the moment that the point of the dagger was within a hair's breadth 

 of his breast.' 



" When next you attempt a murder," cried he, " do it like a mur- 

 derer," and he held back the wrist of the baronet with a strength 

 almost superhuman. " Oh ! Sir Robert Alymer, I pity you." 



" Slave !" cried the baronet, as he threw himself upon the other, 

 "you have not yet escaped me ; my cause is written in heaven, and 

 is approved there, and heaven assists me." A violent struggle 

 ensued, but it was a brief one ; for the baronet, although a muscular 

 and determined man, was no adversary for his son-in-law, whose 

 prodigious strength was seconded by youth, and to whom, perhaps, 

 the occasion gave additional power. Wresting the dagger from the 

 baronet's hand, he flung him violently away, and springing from the 

 bed seized the bell-rope. 



"Madman! keep off," he cried, "stir but a step and I raise the 

 house. I have you in my power. Do you know what you would 

 have done ? an act which would have brought you to an ignominious 

 end." 



" You murdered my daughter," said the baronet, looking round 

 wildly in quest of another weapon, " and I would have murdered 

 you. I would, aye, and I will : you deserve it the God above knows 

 that v you deserve it." 



"What we deserve is nothing to the purpose," cried Willoughby, 

 impatiently. " What may you not deserve ? how know you what she 

 deserved ?" he added hastily, but he checked himself. 



The baronet turned short round, and fixed his eyes upon Wil- 

 loughby, and the breath forced itself from his bosom. He put forth 

 his hands and clenched the air. " Liar, liar, liar, liar," said he, in a 



blast this villain with its thunder suddenly 



you, Willoughby ; oh ! that I might, might kill you." 



The young man caught the arm of the baronet as it descended, 

 and forced him into a chair. " Forgive me," said he, " pardon me 

 I went too far I said too much oh ! Sir Robert, my dear, dear Sir, 

 be calm, compose yourself. Hear me," and he fetched the dagger, 

 and as he laid his hand upon the baronet's arm the tears burst from 

 his eyes, " were I at this moment prepared to meet my Maker, and 

 were you prepared to do this deed and to justify it before God and 

 man ; heaven is my witness, you should plunge this dagger into my 

 heart. What is my life to me, valueless, worthless, worse, it is a 



