Ellen Harmer would not “be tamed.”
The colonel had offered her wealth and luxury; but she received all his unmanly proposals with scorn.
“I can afford to wait,” thought the hard-hearted colonel. “I can afford to wait, a month or two of confinement and pampering will soon bring down her proud spirit.”
In hopes of keeping her away from the king, he had removed her first from one place to another, until at last he imagined that his royal master had given her up for lost.
This, Colonel Blood fondly hoped was the case.
But he was very much mistaken.
The king had his spies about as well as the cunning colonel; but it was not until this very day that he had actually discovered the beautiful Ellen’s hiding-place.
When he heard of it he was in a terrible passion, and for a moment vowed all manner of things against Blood.
When he heard, however, that the colonel had made a sudden journey to Darlington, he made up his mind to visit Blood’s mansion alone, and take her away by force.
He had employed a truculent courtier to be on the spot about three or four in the morning.