The poor girl never slept that night.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE BLOODY DEED.
Let us leave the outlaws to their progress for a brief space, while we
gather up and pursue for awhile some other clues of our story.
We have witnessed the separation of Mark Forrester from his sweetheart,
at the place of trysting. The poor fellow had recovered some of his
confidence in himself and fortune, and was now prepared to go forth with
a new sentiment of hope within his bosom. The sting was in a degree
taken from his conscience--his elastic and sanguine temperament
contributed to this--and with renewed impulses to adventure, and with
new anticipations of the happiness that we all dream to find in life;
the erring, but really honest fellow, rode fearlessly through the dim
forests, without needing more auspicious lights than those of the
kindling moon and stars. The favor of old Allen, the continued love of
Kate, the encouragements of young Colleton, his own feeling of the
absence of any malice in his heart, even while committing his crime, and
the farther fact that he was well-mounted, and speeding from the region
where punishment threatened--all these were influences which conspired
to lessen, in his mind, the griefs of his present privation, and the
lonely emotions which naturally promised to accompany him in his
solitary progress.
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