'But surely, dear uncle, after all these years, you must have forgiven her? Besides, she may be dead.'
'Dead to me, certainly! Forgiven her—well, perhaps I may have forgiven her; but what can make a mere mortal forget a wrong, a cruelty, or an injury?'
'Then you will not yield, but insist that I shall go abroad?'
'I will not yield an inch, and march you shall!' replied the General, as he turned on his heel and left him.
'My darling Dolores—the first and only love of my life!' exclaimed the young man passionately; 'how can he—how dare he—act thus towards us? But that I love him, I think, I may soon come to hate him!'
He rushed away in search of Dolores; but she and the Countess were from home. He was on duty at the Palace next day, and Dolores was to be at the ridotto; thus, ere they could meet, events were to transpire which were altogether beyond the conception of both.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE RIDOTTO.
The 'ridotto,' the Italian word then fashionable for an entertainment of music and dancing, at the huge old red-brick villa of the Heer van Otterbeck, Minister of State, in the vicinity of the Hague, was one of the gayest affairs of the season.
The Prince of Orange (whose son afterwards became King of the Netherlands) was not present, but all the rank, the wealth, and beauty of the Hague were represented; and among those present were many officers of the Scots Brigade, including the Earl of Drumlanrig, General Dundas, in after years the captor of the Cape of Good Hope; and there too was the Conservator of Scottish Privileges at Campvere, John Home, then the celebrated author of the nearly forgotten tragedy of 'Douglas.'