Rain fell in pitiless torrents, when a horseman, evidently dressed in disguise, and looking pale and weak, alighted from his horse at Hannah’s door, and sought shelter from the storm.
A female opened the door for the stranger, who entered.
It was Colonel Blood on his way to Darlington.
For a moment he gazed around him, and then at the swarthy sufferer in bed.
There was something about poor Hannah which attracted his attention.
He stood and gazed at her as she slept and murmured in her dreams.
Opening her eyes rather suddenly she encountered the fixed look of the storm-bound stranger.
With a loud laugh Hannah rose up in bed, looking as wild as the wildest maniac (see cut in No. 22).
With eyes glowing in passion, and with a long, lean arm pointed at him, she hissed out, rather than said—
“Curses befall you, man of blood! Curses before, behind, and on every side attend you; for wherever you are, wherever you go, you despoil the innocent! I have longed to see this hour, Colonel Blood,” continued Hannah, in a fierce voice; “your hand robbed me of my husband and my daughters! My children have been dragged into a life of infamy through you, and my husband slain for defending them! I have done with life; my time has come. I die satisfied, knowing that with my last breath I have cursed you and the very ground you tread upon!”