Page:Irish assassin, or, The misfortunes of the family of O'Donnel (2).pdf/18

18 After his passion was over, he desired McPherson to give him an account of the circumstances which led to his son’s marriage.

McPherson readily complied, reciting all the facts of the progressive passions of Arthur and Maria which came to his knowledge, and concluded by observing, that, as the parties had been married by a Roman Catholic Priest, they might be parted, such a junction not being deemed legal according to the laws of the Protestant Church.

Sir Neale listened to the maddening tale with dreadful sensations, and on its termination his rage knew no bounds. Ho cursed himself, his wife, his son, all the world, and seizing McPherson by the throat nearly strangled him, observing, that if he had done his duty, by transmitting an account of the first interview between Arthur and Maria in the summer-house, all might have been well. "What do I say?" continued he, "all shall be well if I wash from the face of the earth, in their own gore, all those who have thus conspired to sully the blood of the O’Donnells." Ho then rang the bell, ordered his post-carriage, and drove towards Donegal.

Arthur was a short distance from town with a friend; but returning the next day, he learnt the arrival of McPherson, and the sudden departure of his father. At first he was alarmed lest any sudden illness of his revered mother had caused his father so abruptly to leave town; but then ho conceived, if that was the case, some information on tho subject would have been communicated to him. Racked with uncertainty, he endeavoured to find McPherson, but his searches were vain. His anxiety was however terminated by the arrival of a short letter from his faithful servant Henry McGuire, to whom alone he entrusted the secret of his marriage with Maria, and to whose special care ho recommended her when he last quitted Donegal, charging him to watch over her with the eye of a protector.