What I have
been, you know; what I now am, and through what agency
I have been rendered what I now am, you know also. Not
more fixed is fate than my purpose. Your brother dies
even on the spot on which my nephew died; and you, Clara,
shall be my bride; and the first thing your children
shall be taught to lisp shall be curses on the vile name
of De Haldimar!"
"Once more, in the name of my sainted mother, I implore
you to have mercy," shrieked the unhappy Clara. "Oh!"
she continued, with vehement supplication, "let the days
of your early love be brought back to' your memory, that
your heart may be softened; and cut yourself not wholly
off from your God, by the commission of such dreadful
outrages. Again I conjure you, restore us to my father."
"Never!" savagely repeated Wacousta. "I have passed years
of torture in the hope of such an hour as this; and now
that fruition is within my grasp, may I perish if I forego
it! Ha, sir!" turning from the almost fainting Clara to
Sir Everard, who had listened with deep attention to the
history of this extraordinary man;--"for this," and he
thrust aside the breast of his hunting coat, exhibiting
the scar of a long but superficial wound,--"for this do
you owe me a severe reckoning.
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