The proud look of scorn she threw upon him evoked no angry feeling in his breast, he seemed overwhelmed by sorrow, and did not dare even to look up.
“You judge me hardly, unfairly too; I never meant my intercession should be purchased—humble as I am, I should he still more unworthy, had I harhoured such a thought; my hope was this, to make my intervention available, I should show myself linked with the fortunes of that house I tried to save—it should be a case, where, personally, my own interest was at stake, and where my fortune, all I possessed in the world was in the scale, if you consented”—here he hesitated, faltered, and finally became silent, then passing his hands across his eyes, resumed more rapidly—“but I must not speak of this; alas! that my tongue should have ever betrayed it; you have forced my secret from me, and with it my happiness for ever—forget this, I beseech you forget that, even in a moment so unguarded, I dared to lift my eyes to the shrine my heart has worshipped. I ask no pledge, no compact, I will do my utmost to save this youth; I will spare no exertion or influence I possess with the Government; I will make his pardon the recompense due to myself, but if that be impossible, I will endeavour to obtain connivance at his escape, and all the price I ask for this is, your forgiveness of my presumption.”
Kate held out her hand towards him, while a smile of bewitching loveliness played over her features; “this is to be a friend indeed,” said she.
Hemsworth bent down his head till his lips rested on her fingers, and as he did so, the hot tears trickled on her hand, then suddenly starting up, he said, “I must lose no time; where shall I find your cousin?—in what part of the country has he sought shelter?”
“The shealing at the foot of Hungry mountain, he mentioned to Herbert as the rendezvous for the present.”
“Is he alone—has he no companion?”
“None, save, perhaps, the idiot boy who acts as his guide in the mountains.”
“Farewell then,” said Hemsworth, “you shall soon hear what success attends my efforts; farewell”—and, without waiting for more, he hastened from the spot, and was soon heard descending the causeway at a rapid pace.
Kate stood for a few moments lost in thought, and as the sound of the retreating hoofs aroused her, she looked up, and muttering to herself, “It was nobly done,” returned with slow steps to the house.
As Hemsworth spurred his horse, and urged him to his fastest speed, expressions of mingled triumph and vengeance burst from him at intervals—“Mine at last,” cried he—“mine in spite of every obstacle,—-Fortune is seldom so kind as this—vengeance and ambition both gratified together—me, whom they dispised for my poverty, and my low birth—that it should be my destiny to crush them to the dust!” These words were scarcely uttered, when his horse, pressed beyond his strength, stumbled over a rut in the road, and fell heavily to the ground, throwing his rider under him.