Yet his thoughts lingered on the remembrance of her to whose heroic and
confiding spirit he owed his safety. Never had his proud bosom been so
enthralled. Though nurtured in camps, amid the din of arms, and the
shout of the battle, yet his knowledge of the female heart was almost
intuitive. He had loved more than once, but in every case the attachment
ended unhappily, terminating either by the death of the object or by
some calamity his own evil fate had unavoidably brought upon its victim.
Though fearful the same operation of his destiny would ensue, and that
misery and misfortune would still follow the current of his affections,
yet he resolved to behold once more the maiden he loved with an ardour
almost surpassing his own belief.
One cold dull morning, towards the wane of the year, when the heavy
drops lay long on the rank herbage; no sunbeam yet loitering through the
damp chill atmosphere, but the sky one wide and unvarying expanse--a sea
of cloud--here and there a black scud passing over, like a dim bark
sweeping across the bosom of that "waveless deep," a stranger stood by a
low wicket near the mansion of Grislehurst.
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