s. I, driven half mad, as I met party after
party of the country people, in their holiday best, descending the hills,
escaped to their cloud-veiled summits, and looking on the sterile rocks
about me, exclaimed--"They do not cry, long live the Earl!" Nor, when
night came, accompanied by drizzling rain and cold, would I return home;
for I knew that each cottage rang with the praises of Adrian; as I felt my
limbs grow numb and chill, my pain served as food for my insane aversion;
nay, I almost triumphed in it, since it seemed to afford me reason and
excuse for my hatred of my unheeding adversary. All was attributed to him,
for I confounded so entirely the idea of father and son, that I forgot that
the latter might be wholly unconscious of his parent's neglect of us; and
as I struck my aching head with my hand, I cried: "He shall hear of this! I
will be revenged! I will not suffer like a spaniel! He shall know, beggar
and friendless as I am, that I will not tamely submit to injury!" Each day,
each hour added to these exaggerated wrongs. His praises were so many
adder's stings infixed in my vulnerable breast. If I saw him at a distance,
riding a beautiful horse, my blood boiled with rage; the air seemed
poisoned by his presence, and my very native English was changed to a vile
jargon, since every phrase I heard was coupled with his name and honour. I
panted to relieve this painful heart-burning by some misdeed that should
rouse him to a sense of my antipathy. It was the height of his offending,
that he should occasion in me such intolerable sensations, and not deign
himself to afford any demonstration that he was aware that I even lived to
feel them.

It soon became known that Adrian took great delight in his park and
preserves. He never sported, but spent hours in watching the tribes of
lovely and almost tame animals with which it was stocked, and ordered that
greater care should be taken of them than ever. Here was an opening for my
plans of offence, and I made use of it with all the brute impetuosity I
derived from my active mode of life. I proposed the enterprize of poaching
on his demesne to my few remaining comrades, who were the most determined
and lawless of the crew; but they all shrunk from the peril; so I was left
to achieve my revenge myself. At first my exploits were unperceived; I
increased in daring; footsteps on the dewy grass, torn boughs, and marks of
slaughter, at length betrayed me to the game-keepers. They