Trembling, and scarcely able to restrain her tears—
"Sir Adam Otterburn," she replied, "I despise alike these offers and those threats; for if not a villain, and a cruel one, thou art (and, Heaven protect me!) assuredly a madman."
His countenance became livid, and his eyes sad.
"Then so be it—a madman! Then, as a madman, let me have but one soul, one thought, and one desire—vengeance! the deep, thirsty vengeance of madness, of jealousy and despair!"
Terrified by his aspect and his fury, Jane had withdrawn to the farthest end of the apartment, when a new gust of passion seized him, and he sprang towards her.
"There is but one way left me now. Am I a child, a boy, a fool, that I trifle with thee, who art pitiless as a panther, and inanimate as marble?" he exclaimed, as he seized her, and endeavoured to encircle her with his arms; "in this house thou art completely in my power as in the midst of a desert, and now—and now——"
"Mercy!" cried Jane, filled with a sudden sense of new danger, as she endeavoured to elude his wild grasp, and the gaze of his large, dark, gloating eyes, and prayed aloud for safety and protection.
"Ay, invoke and cry, and pray to God or to man, as thou pleasest; but will either hear thee?"
"Vipont! Vipont!
"Ha! ha! the hand of Birrel is in his heart."