S88 



LIONEL LACKLAND. 



the arm, and dragged me to the table j " The pale-faced coward," 

 cried he, " now. Sir cheat, look over this lady-faced puppy, and let 

 him have a taste of the cat in anticipation." Ere he had finished, 

 I shook myself from his grasp, and, bursting with rage, I poured 

 upon him the bitterest taunts ; his eyes glistened, he darted upon 

 me a furious glance, and raising his arm, I should instantly have 

 paid for my revenge, by an utter humiliation, had not a man sprung 

 forward, and by a sudden and dexterous wrestler's trick, laid him 

 prostrate on the ground j the people shouted, but, as conscious of 

 their error, or danirer, instantly became silent. My defender darted 

 through the crowd, but not before I distinguished the features of 

 Mark. The pystrior who had until now been utterly abstracted in 

 his calculations, ere Stratton recovered, forced me out of the tent, 

 and whispering " run, run for your life — as the hour comes so will 

 revenge — away." The fate-man instantly disappeared, as I turned 

 abruptly away, and was soon lost in the increasing obscurit}'. 

 Revenge ! what does he mean? muttered I, as I walked musingly 

 on, now giving way to feelings of bitter indignation, and then lost 

 in the labyrinth of conjecture. — Eleven to-night. — The moon was 

 peering over the horizon, streaming her cold beams across the sky, 

 dull with the summer mist, as 1 walked toward Tolgarrik. My 

 first perception in waking, my constant thought through the day, 

 was of Tolgarrik, not that I had determined upon it as a mere 

 appointment, not that it had occupied my mind as a necessary duty, 

 but still, beneath all my engagements, my conversation with 

 Ellen, my dreams of future joys, still beneath it all there was a 

 feeling of fearful foreboding, an inward restlessness, an anticipation 

 of evil J that preceding shadow of unborn events. I had not 

 determined to be at Tol^^arrik, I felt to the last irresolute ; yet as 

 the hour advanced, though I dreaded the development of the event, 

 I found myself, as it were, unconsciously traversing with hasty 

 steps the rough pass round the rocks leading to the cave of 

 Tregagle. 



The time was rapidly advancing : it was necessary for me to 

 descend the rocks at some little distance beyond the cavern, I 

 therefore quickened my pace, that by arriving first at the spot 

 I might avoid detection. After creeping noiselessly along, I drew 

 myself within a hollow of the cliff, only a few yards distant from 

 the cavern j there I remained in breathless expectation. Verily I felt 

 the fascination of curiosity ; the silence of the time was painful to 

 me. I listened, and my hearing seemed to partake of my fears, the 

 rustling of my own dress sounded like thunder, while the very 

 shadows of the night became objects of terror — I heard a step,— - 

 again — yet so faint that it was scarcely audible ; looking through 

 the cavern, I could just distinguish the form of some one moving 

 towards me, nearer, and nearer, until I discovered the form of the 

 woman I had formerly seen there. On entering the cavern, she 

 leaned, seemingly exhausted, against the rock j I could hear her 

 sighs, I fancied she wept. Suddenly starting, she drew a small 

 bundle from under her cloak, and removing what seemed to be the 



