"Stay there! Stay there! You wretch! You robber! You took him from me! Stay there in the dark, and look at his face now. Starve! starve and die in your cell! Shout, no one will hear you--no one will know! Ha, ha! How like you my wedding present?"
As Miss Linisfarne uttered these words she waved the candle wildly. It touched the tapestry, and in a moment the moth-eaten stuff, dry as tinder, was in a blaze. She saluted the fire with cries of joy. Meg smelt the burning, and saw the vivid line of light under the door of her cell. With a cry of alarm she hurried to the window and found it barred, while outside in the passage the flames roared, and Miss Linisfarne shrieked like the mad woman she was.
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
THE GIPSY'S PROPHECY.
True to his resolve, Dan left his camp after supper in order to assure himself that Meg had arrived safely at home. As he mounted the hill he heard confused shouts, and, on looking upward, beheld an unusual glow in the sky. Filled with fresh alarm at these portents he increased his pace, and was soon on the summit of the ridge overlooking Farbis. To his astonishment he saw that the Court was in flames, and that the shouts were those of the villagers hastening to extinguish the conflagration. Only for a moment did he survey the unaccustomed scene, then ran down to the village at top speed.
"Great heavens!" he thought, "can that woman have killed Meg, and set fire to the place to conceal her crime?"
This seemed to be the true explanation to his agitated mind, the more so as, in racing down the street, he ran against a man wringing his hands, and crying aloud. It was Dr. Merle.
"Where is Meg? Is she safe?" demanded Dan, pausing a moment in his headlong career.
"No, no!" wailed Merle, "she went to see Miss Linisfarne. She is at----"
But Dan waited to hear no more. His worst forebodings appeared likely to be realized; and, frantic with dread at the danger of Meg, he sped on to the Court. He arrived in time to see the iron gates wrenched off their hinges by the stalwart arms of the villagers, who afterwards poured in through the gate. Carried along with the disorderly crowd up the avenue, Dan found himself at the elbow of the vicar.