I
saw, by his eye, that he had squinted oftener over a gun than through a
needle!"
"But they have murdered my kinsman!--the loyal, the learned, the
ingenious Mr. Christopher Dillon!"
"If they have done so, they shall be made to answer it," said
Borroughcliffe, reseating himself at the table, with a coolness that
furnished an ample pledge of the impartiality of his judgment; "but let
us learn the facts, before we do aught hastily."
Colonel Howard was fain to comply with so reasonable a proposition, and
he resumed his chair, while his companion proceeded to institute a close
examination of the peddler boy.
We shall defer, until the proper time may arrive, recording the result
of his inquiries; but shall so satisfy the curiosity of our readers, as
to tell them that the captain learned sufficient to convince him a very
serious attempt was meditated on the abbey; and, as he thought, enough
also to enable him to avert the danger.
CHAPTER XXVII.
--"I have not seen
So likely an ambassador of love."
_Merchant of Venice._
Cecilia and Katherine separated from Alice Dunscombe in the lower
gallery of the cloisters; and the cousins ascended to the apartment
which was assigned them as a dressing-room. The intensity of feeling
that was gradually accumulating in the breasts of the ladies, as
circumstances brought those in whom their deepest interests were centred
into situations of extreme delicacy, if not of actual danger, perhaps,
in some measure, prevented them from experiencing all that concern which
the detection and arrest of Merry might be supposed to excite.
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