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Show 260 RICHARD IIUROIS. "\Vhcn, however, I had got nlongsidc of him, l1e enforced himself to spcccll, but without replying- to my question. "And what brings you back 1 How did yon-! mean, you ha,·e come back safely 1" "Ay, I am safe," was my answer; "but, truth to say, brother John, yon do not seem to know exactly wlwt you mean. "\Vl1at! you arc still angry about the old business 1 bnt you aro wrong. It is for me to be :mgry, if anybody; but I am 110t angry-! have f()rgivcn you. 'l'ell Ill<', then, m·e the old people well?" "They arc!" was his only and brief nnswer; and I got nothing from him but plain yes and no, wl1ile we moved along together to tl1e house. lie was evidently ow•rcomc with :Jstonislnncnt and fcnr. I knew him to Lc timid; Lut, nt that time, ignorant as I was then of the history w!Jich lws been nlrc:1dy related, I found it difficult to accmmt for l1is imbecility. Jt wns easily understood nfterwanl. llut e,·en then I looked on l1im with pity, mixed with scorn, ns, sl11·inki11g and silent, he moved along beside me. Guilty or not, I would not have lwd in my bosom such a soul as his for all creation. TilE UHOKI~S III~ART. CHAPTER XXXVIII. Til/;; BHOf\J:.:N IIJ:::AH'l'. •·1Joldl llold! Ol1, slop thut speedy messenger of dea!h, Oh, lt!t l1im not run down thnt llll.l'I'OW pulh, Which lcndi! unto thy hcni'L."-SATIRO i\.IASTL"C. 261 MY unexpected retum, of course, brought the family together. Jolm llm·dis could not well be absent, aud he was a pale and silent listener to my melancholy narrative. '1'l1e story was soon told, and a dumb honor seized UjJOn all. I saw that he was palsied- that he shivered- that a spasmodic emotion had fastened upon nll his limbs, but, even had l1e not been guilty, such emotion, at such a narrative, would have Leon natural enough. Ilc rose to lcM·e the room, but staggered in such a manner tlmt IJC was forced once more to take l1is scat. .My account of the murder had confirmed the story of the emissary. He had a vain, vague llOj)e before, that the clan-the mystic confederacy- was a fable of the stranger, got up for purposes yet unexplained, or, if true, that its 1mrposeS and power had been alike exaggerated. 'l'he history of my sehmre, and of the pursuit of William Carrington, however, WHS attended with so many circumstances of bold ntrocity, that he could deceive himself no louger as to the ~;trcugtl1 and audacity of the clan. Still, his guilty soul could draw some consolation, even from a fate so dreadful. lie breathed with more freedom, w beu l1e found that I unhesitatingly ascribed the murder of my friend to the robbers, and had no suspicion in auy other quarter. His own common sense sufficiently taught him that such a belief was the most reasonable and natural to one wl10 did not know the truth; and with a consciousness of increased security, from one quarter at least, he did not afilict himself much with the |
