Chapter 25 - Page 2

existence.

"It is in vain--it is in vain," said the daughter, desisting from her
fruitless attempts to recall the spirit which had been effectually
dislodged, for the neck had been twisted by the violence of the
murderers; "It is in vain--he is murdered--I always knew it would be
thus; and now I witness it!"

She then snatched up the key and the piece of money, but it was only
to dash them again on the floor, as she exclaimed, "Accursed be ye
both, for you are the causes of this deed!"

Nigel would have spoken--would have reminded her, that measures should
be instantly taken for the pursuit of the murderer who had escaped, as
well as for her own security against his return; but she interrupted
him sharply.

"Be silent," she said, "be silent. Think you, the thoughts of my own
heart are not enough to distract me, and with such a sight as this
before me? I say, be silent," she said again, and in a yet sterner
tone--"Can a daughter listen, and her father's murdered corpse lying
on her knees?"

Lord Glenvarloch, however overpowered by the energy of her grief, felt
not the less the embarrassment of his own situation. He had discharged
both his pistols--the robber might return--he had probably other
assistants besides the man who had fallen, and it seemed to him,
indeed, as if he had heard a muttering beneath the windows. He
explained hastily to his companion the necessity of procuring
ammunition.

"You are right," she said, somewhat contemptuously, "and have ventured
already more than ever I expected of man. Go, and shift for yourself,
since that is your purpose--leave me to my fate."

Without stopping for needless expostulation, Nigel hastened to his own
room through the secret passage, furnished himself with the ammunition
he sought for, and returned with the same celerity; wondering himself
at the accuracy with which he achieved, in the dark, all the
meanderings of the passage which he had traversed only once, and that
in a moment of such violent agitation.

He found, on his return, the unfortunate woman standing like a statue
by the body of her father, which she had laid straight on the floor,
having covered the face with the skirt of his gown. She testified
neither surprise nor pleasure at Nigel's return, but said to him
calmly--"My moan is made--my sorrow--all the sorrow at least that man
shall ever have noting of, is gone past; but I will have justice, and
the base villain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he
had not, by the course of nature, a twelvemonth's life in him, shall
not cumber the earth long after him. Stranger, whom heaven has sent to
forward the