“Are you sure?”
“Oh! not a morning but I’m there the first thing, asking, and longing for them.”
“Lie back, Moriarty, in the carriage, and pull your hat over your face,” whispered Ormond: “postilions, drive on to that little cabin, with the trees about it, at the foot of the hill.” This was Moriarty’s cabin. When they stopped, poor Peggy was called out. Alas! how altered from the dancing, sprightly, blooming girl, whom Ormond had known so few years since in the Black Islands! How different from the happy wife, whom he had left, comfortably settled in a cottage suited to her station and her wishes! She was thin, pale, and haggard—her dress was neglected—an ill-nursed child, that she had in her arms she gave to a young girl near her. Approaching the carriage, and seeing Harry Ormond, she seemed ready to sink into the earth: however, after having drank some water, she recovered sufficiently to be able to answer Ormond’s inquiries.
“What do you intend to do, Peggy?”
“Do, sir!—go to America, to join my husband sure; every thing was to have been sold, Monday last—but nobody has any money—and I am tould it will cost a great deal to get across the sea.”
At this she burst into tears and cried most bitterly; and at this moment the carriage door flew open—Moriarty’s impatience could be no longer restrained—he flung himself into the arms of his wife.
Leaving this happy and innocent couple to enjoy their felicity we proceed to Castle Hermitage.
Ormond directed the postilions to go the back way to the house. They drove down the old avenue.
Presently they saw a boy, who seemed to be standing on the watch, run back towards the castle, leaping over hedge and ditch with desperate haste. Then came running from the house three men, calling to one another to shut the gates for the love of God!
They all ran towards the gateway through which the postilions were going to drive, reached it just as the foremost horses turned, and flung the gate full against the horses’ heads. The men, without looking or caring, went on locking the gate. Ormond jumped out of the carriage—at the sight of him, the padlock fell from the hand of the man who held it.