ned our happiness. When I found that he had left London my rage knew
no bounds: I was absolutely frantic with indignation; the earth
reeled before my eyes; I was almost suffocated by the violence--the
whirlpool--of my emotions. I gave myself no time to think,--I left town
in pursuit of my foe.

"I found that--still addicted, though, I believed, not so madly as
before, to the old amusements--he was in the neighbourhood of Newmarket,
awaiting the races shortly to ensue. No sooner did I find his address
than I wrote him another challenge, still more forcibly and insultingly
worded than the one you took. In this I said that his refusal was of no
avail; that I had sworn that my vengeance should overtake him; and that
sooner or later, in the face of heaven and despite of hell, my oath
should be fulfilled. Remember those words, Pelham, I shall refer to them
hereafter.

"Tyrrell's reply was short and contemptuous: he affected to treat me
as a madman. Perhaps (and I confess that the incoherence of my letter
authorized such suspicion) he believed I really was one. He concluded by
saying that if he received more of my letters, he should shelter himself
from my aggressions by the protection of the law.

"On receiving this reply, a stern, sullen, iron spirit entered into my
bosom. I betrayed no external mark of passion; I sat down in silence;
I placed the letter and Gertrude's picture before me. There, still and
motionless, I remained for hours. I remember well I was awakened from my
gloomy revery by the clock, as it struck the first hour of the morning.
At that lone and ominous sound, the associations of romance and dread
which the fables of our childhood connect with it rushed coldly and
fearfully into my mind: the damp dews broke out upon my forehead and
the blood curdled in my limbs. In that moment I knelt down and vowed
a frantic and deadly oath--the words of which I would not now dare to
repeat--that before three days expired, hell should no longer be cheated
of its prey. I rose,--I flung myself on my bed, and slept.

"The next day I left my abode. I purchased a strong and swift horse;
and, disguising myself from head to foot in a long horseman's cloak, I
set off alone, locking in my heart the calm and cold conviction that my
oath should be kept. I placed, concealed in my dress, two pistols; my
intention was to follow Tyrrell wherever he went, till we could find
ourselves alone, and without the chance of intrusion. It was t