He dreamed.
He thought he met with Flora in some leafy coppice and in secret, and that, while conversing with her in a strain of loving tenderness, they were interrupted by the tramp of a body of persons approaching. He fancied that he seized Flora in his arms, and fled with her, but was pursued, and that his pursuers shouted and uttered fierce threats. He looked back, and saw that old Wilton headed Jukes and his followers, as well as Nathan Gomer and his uncle, who seemed to be the most excited of the party, and called him by name loudly. Then, as he still fled, he observed that his pursuers were armed, and he heard his uncle call to them to fire upon him.
He fled on; still his uncle’s voice shouted in his ear—
“Fire! fire! fire!”
At last he sprang up in his bed, suddenly awakened, and still the voice vehemently cried—
“Fire! fire! fire!”
A heavy hand beat violently against the panels of his chamber-door, and completely aroused him.
He at once leaped to the floor, and unlocked his door. He found his uncle without, in a state of great excitement—he was half-dressed.
“Oh, Lord!” he cried; “I thought you would never wake; there is a fire; throw on your clothes, Hal, my boy!”
“A fire! where?” asked Hal, hastily.