Lord Elmwood listened to the last part of this account with seeming composure—then turning hastily to Rushbrook, he said,
“Where are my pistols, Harry?”
Sandford rose from his seat, and forgetting all the anger between them, caught hold of the Earl’s hand, and cried, “Will you then prove yourself a father?”
Lord Elmwood only answered, “Yes,” and left the room.
Rushbrook followed, and begged with all the earnestness he felt, to be permitted to accompany his uncle.
While Sandford shook hands with the farmer a thousand times; and he, in his turn, rejoiced, as if he had already seen Lady Matilda restored to liberty.
Rushbrook in vain entreated Lord Elmwood; he laid his commands upon him not to go a step from the Castle; while the agitation of his own mind, was too great, to observe the rigour of this sentence on his nephew.
During the hasty preparations for the Earl’s departure, Sandford received from Miss Woodley the sad intelligence of what had happened; but he returned an answer to recompence her for all she had suffered on the occasion.
Within a few hours Lord Elmwood set off, accompanied by his guide, the farmer, and other attendants furnished with every requisite to ascertain the success of their enterprise—while poor Matilda little thought of a deliverer nigh, much less, that her deliverer should prove her father.