CHAPTER XVII.
THE NUBIAN SLAVE AND ELLEN HARMER.
It must be confessed that no man living ever felt less remorse for crime of any kind than did Colonel Blood.
He had been in several wars, and was a rough-handed, cold-hearted villain.
But with all his knavery, he possessed a sort of gentlemanly bearing that admitted him into almost any society of the loose-living period in which he lived, namely, that of the lascivious Charles the Second, whom people are wont to call “the merry monarch.”
John Blood had ridden some twenty miles or more; he hired a light and fast four-wheeled vehicle, in order to reach London all the sooner.
Ellen Harmer, almost distracted at thus being forcibly borne away from her father’s home, wept and bewailed her cruel fate.
But, had she shed tears of gore, they would have had no effect upon the mind or conscience of her rude, rough-handed captor.
In order to quiet the beautiful Ellen, he administered to her a glass of wine, in which he had placed a noxious drug.
This had the effect of producing sound sleep; nor was she aware of whither the fast-going vehicle was going.