ing put him
_hors de combat_, they took the key from him, released the lady, forced
her and her maid to re-enter the carriage, and drove off, leaving him to
explain her absence as best he might.

They had not been gone more than ten minutes when Wilford and his groom
rode up at speed, and on learning the trick which had been played
upon him swore a fearful oath to be avenged on Cumberland, and after
ascertaining which direction they had taken, followed eagerly in
pursuit.

He added, that his chief inducement for making this confession, was his
conviction that something dreadful would occur unless timely measures
were taken to prevent it. He declared Cumberland's manner to have been
that of a man driven to desperation; and he had noticed that he had
pistols with him. Wilford's ungovernable fury, on being informed how he
had been deceived, was described by Hardman as enough to make a man's
blood run cold to witness. Having, in addition, ascertained the route
they had taken, and the means by which we should be likely to trace
them, we returned to the carriage,--my heart heavy with the most dire
forebodings,--and inciting the drivers, by promises of liberal payment,
to use their utmost speed, we once again started in pursuit.

CHAPTER LVI -- RETRIBUTION

"Fell retribution, like a sleuth-hound, still
The footsteps of the wicked sternly tracks,
And in his mad career o'ertaking him,
Brings, when he least expects it, swift destruction,
And with a bitter, mocking justice, marks
Each sin that did most easily beset him.
The eye that spared not woman in its lust,
Glaring with maniac terror, sinks in death.
The homicidal hand, whose fiendish skill
Made man its victim, crushed and bleeding lies.
The crafty tongue, a ready instrument
Of that most subtle wickedness, his brain,
Babbles in fatuous imbecility."
--_Holofernes, a Mystery_.

"We meet to part no more."
--_Amatory Sentiment_.

AFTER proceeding about a mile, at a pace which consorted ill with the
fever of impatience that tormented me, we came once again upon the high
road; and having got clear of ruts and mud-holes, were enabled to resume
~455~~ our speed. Half-an-hour's gallop advanced us above six miles
on our route, and brought us to the little town of M--. Here we were
compelled to stop to change our