CHAPTER XIII.
BLACK DONALD.
Feared, shunned, belied ere youth had lost her force,
He hated men too much to feel remorse,
And thought the vice of wrath a sacred call,
To pay the injuries of some on all.
There was a laughing devil in his sneer,
That caused emotions both of rage and fear:
And where his frown of hatred darkly fell,
Hope, withering fled and mercy sighed farewell!
--BYRON.
Herbert Greyson had been correct in his conjecture concerning the
cause of Colonel Le Noir's conduct in absenting himself from the
trial, or appearing there only in the person of his attorney. A
proud, vain, conceited man, full of Joseph Surfacisms, he could
better have borne to be arraigned upon the charge of murder than to
face the accusation of baseness that was about to be proved upon
him. Being reasonably certain as to what was likely to be the
decision of the Orphan's Court, he was not disappointed in hearing
that judgment had been rendered in favor of his ward and her
friends. His one great disappointment had been upon discovering the
flight of Clara. For when he had ascertained that she had fled, he
knew that all was lost--and lost through Capitola, the hated girl
for whose destruction he had now another and a stronger motive--
revenge!
In this mood of mind three days before his departure to join his
regiment he sought the retreat of the outlaw.
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