“Who are you looking for, young sirs?” exclaimed mad Kathleen. “I know without your telling me. He is gone—gone away, and you must follow to find him; but listen, boys, I have a message for him. Now, don’t you fail to give it. Tell him there are enemies watching for him, and that if ever he comes on shore by himself he will be sure to be set upon, and all his strength and courage will avail him nothing. He is a brave man, your captain, and I wish him well.”
“Why, how do you know anything about him?” asked one of the midshipmen. “I did not know he had ever been here before.”
“Mad Kathleen knows more things than you wot of,” answered the mad woman, with a loud laugh, whirling her hands as she spoke. “Now, go to the Castle as I bid you, and give him my message. He would run more risk by neglecting my warning than if he were to fight a dozen battles for his king and country.”
Though the midshipmen were little inclined to put much belief in the message of the mad creature, they promised to deliver it as soon as they met their captain. After consulting together, they agreed that their proper course was to row along the bay towards the Castle, in the hopes that he might have gone there.
Chapter Seventeen.
As the commander of the corvette was about to descend the glen, his attention was arrested by the faint tramp of horses’ hoofs passing rapidly over the downs. He turned his head and at that instant saw a young lady on horseback, not far from him, cantering gaily along, while at a short distance behind her was another lady, followed by a groom. At that moment the figure of the mad woman, which had a short time before appeared to him, rose suddenly from behind the ground where he had last seen her. She uttered a wild shriek; the effect was to make the leading horse start and rear violently. The animal, apparently, was not well broken in. Again and again it reared, backing down towards the edge of the cliff. The young officer saw the lady’s danger, and in an instant sprang towards her. She uttered a shriek as she discovered how fearfully near the edge of the cliff her horse had carried her. The officer grasped her bridle, but in vain tried to draw back the frightened animal. It seemed resolved to
throw itself over the precipice. In another moment the lady and her steed would have been carried to destruction.