The gamekeeper was off before Margaret arrived, having heard the report of the pistols; and he went into the wood. The young men ran off to the shore, and soon found the old fisherman supporting the head of the poor young man. The blood was flowing fast from his wounds, and he was in a swoon like death, though his heart beat, and he breathed painfully. They formed a double row; they lifted him up, and carried him along as gently as they could; but the poor fellow groaned with the agony of his shattered arm and wounded side. Robin followed them, muttering curses against the foul fiend, and every moment pointing to the departing boat of the smugglers with a clenched fist, exclaiming, "The foul fiend be with you! He'll consume you yet, ye cowards!" CHAPTER VIII DISAPPOINTMENT There is a sad and fearful void in the disappointed heart. Poor Margaret! but one short hour past and thy prospects were as bright as the broad moonlight that shone upon thy path. Yea, they were as bright to thine eye as that beautiful orb in the most brilliant night; for thy love was pure, true, and abiding. How great was the reverse our heroine experienced when she quitted her lover, and returned to the Priory Farm worse than desolate! Had she never seen him again, _her_ disappointment could not have been so great. Time might have taught her to consider him lost at sea, or taken by the enemy, or killed in battle, or as having died a natural death. But as it was, the tide had turned so suddenly; the change from the full flow to the very lowest ebb was as instantaneous as if some gulf had swallowed up the river, and left the channel dry. Clouds, black clouds intervened between her and her lover. She had received a blight to all her hopes, save one, and that was the last and best that any one could cleave to; it was, "that God would change his heart, and one day make him see the error of his way." She little thought how distant that day was. But it seemed that her sister's words were at this time true: "Margaret, you will never marry William Laud."