With these instructions, and with a large allowance of food and liquor,
the Justice dismissed his party to keep guard for the night in the old
castle, under the full hope and belief that they would neither spend
the night in watching nor prayer.
There was little fear that Glossin himself should that night sleep
over-sound. His situation was perilous in the extreme, for the schemes
of a life of villainy seemed at once to be crumbling around and above
him. He laid himself to rest, and tossed upon his pillow for a long
time in vain. At length he fell asleep, but it was only to dream of his
patron, now as he had last seen him, with the paleness of death upon
his features, then again transformed into all the vigour and comeliness
of youth, approaching to expel him from the mansion-house of his
fathers. Then he dreamed that, after wandering long over a wild heath,
he came at length to an inn, from which sounded the voice of revelry;
and that when he entered the first person he met was Frank Kennedy, all
smashed and gory, as he had lain on the beach at Warroch Point, but
with a reeking punch-bowl in his hand. Then the scene changed to a
dungeon, where he heard Dirk Hatteraick, whom he imagined to be under
sentence of death, confessing his crimes to a clergyman. 'After the
bloody deed was done,' said the penitent, 'we retreated into a cave
close beside, the secret of which was known but to one man in the
country; we were debating what to do with the child, and we thought of
giving it up to the gipsies, when we heard the cries of the pursuers
hallooing to each other. One man alone came straight to our cave, and
it was that man who knew the secret; but we made him our friend at the
expense of half the value of the goods saved. By his advice we carried
off the child to Holland in our consort, which came the following night
to take us from the coast. That man was--'
'No, I deny it! it was not I!' said Glossin, in half-uttered accents;
and, struggling in his agony to express his denial more distinctly, he
awoke.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account