“Go on, Mr. Crackenfudge, let us hear it at once.”

“Well, then, Sir Thomas, a’ told you a’d keep my eye on that chap.”

“On whom? name him, sir.”

“A’ can’t, Sir Thomas; the fellow in the inn.”

“Oh! what about him?”

“Why he has taken her off.”

“Taken whom off?” shouted the baronet, in a voice of thunder.  “You contemptible scoundrel, whom has he taken off?”

“Your daughter, Sir Thomas—­Miss Gourlay.  They went together in the ‘Fly’ on Tuesday night last to Dublin; a’ followed in the ’Flash of Lightning,’ and seen them in conversation.  Dandy Dulcimer, who is your friend—­For God’s sake, Sir Thomas, be quiet.  You’ll shake me—­a-a-ach—­Sir—­Thom-a-as—­w-wi-will you not take my—­my —­li-life——­”

“You lie like a villain, you most contemptible reptile,” shouted the other.  “My daughter, sirrah, never eloped with an adventurer.  She never eloped at all, sir.  She durst not elope.  She knows what my vengeance would be, sirrah.  She knows, you lying whelp of perdition, that I would pursue herself and her paramour to the uttermost ends of the earth; that I would shoot them both dead—­that I would trample upon and spurn their worthless carcasses, and make an example of them to all time, and through all eternity.  And you—­you prying, intermeddling scoundrel—­how durst you—­you petty, beggarly tyrant—­hated and despised by poor and rich—­was it to mock me—­”

“Sir Thom-a-as, a’m—­a’m&mdas
h;­I—­I—­aach—­ur-ur-ur-mur-murd-murd-er-er-err-errr.”

“Was it to jeer and sneer at me—­to insult me—­you miserable knave—­to drive me mad—­into raging frenzy—­that you came, with a smirk of satisfaction on your face, to communicate the disgrace and dishonor of my family—­the ruin of my hopes—­the frustration of my ambition—­of all I had set my heart on, and that I perilled my soul to accomplish?  Yes, you villain, your eye was smiling—­elated—­your heart was glad—­for, sirrah, you hate me at heart.”

“God! oh, oh! a’m—­a’m—­ur-urr-urrr—­whee-ee-ee-hee-hee-hee.  God ha-ha-ha-have mer-mer-mercy on my sinf-sinfu-l sou-so-soul! a’m gone.”

“Yes, you hate me, villain, and this is a triumph to you; every one hates me, and every one will rejoice at my shame.  I know it, you accursed miscreant, I feel it; and in return I hate, with more than the malignity of the devil, every human creature that God has made.  I have been at enmity with them, and in that enmity I shall persist; deep and dark as hell shall it be, and unrelenting as the vengeance of a devil.  There,” he added, throwing the almost senseless body of Crackenfudge over on a sofa, “there, you may rest on that sofa, and get breath; get breath quickly, and mark, obey me.”

“Yes, Sir Thomas, a’ will; a’ll do anything, provided that you’ll let me escape with my life.  God! a’m nearly dead, the fire’s not out of my eyes yet.”

“Silence, you wretched slave!” shouted the baronet, stamping with rage; not another word of complaint, but listen to n—­listen to me, I say:  go on, and let me hear, fully and at large, the withering history of this burning and most flagitious disgrace.”