he had he could
not have left the castle! What might not a man in the mental and moral
condition of the earl, unrestrained by law or conscience, risk to
secure the property for his son? Might he not poison her, smother her,
kill her somehow, anyhow that was safest? Then rushed into his mind
what the housekeeper had told him of his cruelty to his wife: a man
like that, no longer feeling, however knowing the difference between
right and wrong, hardly knowing the difference between dreaming a thing
and doing the thing, was no fitter member of a family than any devil in
or out of hell! He would have blamed himself bitterly had he not been
sure he was not following his own will in going away. If there were a
better way it had not been intended he should take it, else it would
have been shown him! But now he would be restrained by no delicacy
towards the earl: whatever his hand found to do he would do, regardless
of appearances! If he could not reach lady Arctura, he would seek the
help of the law, tell what he knew, and get a warrant of search. He
dared not think what he dreaded, but he would trust nothing but seeing
her with his own eyes, and hearing from her own mouth that all was
well--which could not be, else why should his mother have sent him to
her? Doubtless the way would unfold before him as he went on; but if
everything should seem to go against him, he would yet say with sir
Philip Sidney that, "since a man is bound no farther to himself than to
do wisely, chance is only to trouble them that stand upon chance." If
his plans or attempts should one after the other fail, "there's a
divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will"! So he rode
on, careful over his mare, lest much haste should be little speed. The
animal was strong and in good condition, and by the time Donal had seen
the sun rise, ascend the heavens, and go half-way down their western
slope, and had stopped three times to refresh the mare, he found
himself, after much climbing and descent, on a good level road that
promised by nightfall to bring him to the place of his desire.

But the mare was now getting tired, and no wonder, for she had had more
than a hard day's work. Donal dismounted every now and then to relieve
her, that he might go the faster when he mounted again, comforting
himself that in the true path the delays are as important as the speed;
for the hour is the point, not the swiftness: an hour too soon may even
be more disastro