Alas! I wonder that he did not know that already it had come. I should have thought, indeed, did often think, that I had betrayed myself and shown him that the love he spoke of had grown up in my heart for him. He must have seen that which I could not hide, try as I would; my eager looking for his coming in those soft summer evenings, my great joy in his company, my sympathy with him in all that he had known and suffered, and my tell-tale blushes whenever his eyes fell on me. Yet if he knew he gave no sign of knowing, and, although he ever sought my side and passed the hours with me, as those others passed theirs together, he said no word. But now, as we sat there on the porch silent though, sometimes, our eyes would meet in the glow of the lamp from within, there fell upon the silence of the night the clatter of a horse's hoofs up the road, of a horse coming on at a great pace as though ridden by one who spurred it to its best efforts and sought its greater speed. "Who can ride here at such a pace to-night?" I said, as still the clatter drew nearer and we heard the horse turn off from the road into our plantations, and so into the stables at the back, while a moment later a voice was heard demanding to see Mistress Bampfyld. "That voice!" exclaimed Lord St. Amande, springing from his chair and reaching for his sword, which stood in a corner of the balcony. "That voice! Though I have not heard it for years I should know it in a thousand. 'Tis the villain, O'Rourke. Heaven hath delivered him into my hands at last. Now will I have a full revenge on him." "Oh sir," I said, as he drew his blade, "Oh! sir, oh! my lord, take no revenge on him here, I beseech you. Stain not this house with his blood. No life has ever yet been taken in it since it was brought over. And, oh! remember, he came here before and was well received and hospitably treated--he cannot know that you should also have found your way here--he may well expect to receive the same treatment, the same hospitality again." "It must be as you command in your house," my lord replied, "yet he shall not escape me, and, when he leaves this place, his punishment shall be well assured." Then he called softly to Kinchella, and, in a few hurried words, told him of who was without. But, ere the latter could express his astonishment--as, indeed, it was astonishing that these three should now be come together!--we heard O'Rourke's voice exclaiming: "Lead me to her at once, I say. There is no moment to be lost. They may be here at any moment of the night. I have seen them, nay, barely escaped from them; they are on their way--hundreds of them." "Great God!" exclaimed Mary, who had now come forth with her lover and heard his words, "'tis the Indians he speaks of. It can be no others."