"
"You damned rascal, you stole the key. If it had not been for that I
should have gone to her again. I only wanted to bring her to
reason!"
"But as you had lost the key, rather than expose your cruelty, you
went away, and left her to perish! You wanted her to die unless you
could compel her to marry your son, that the title and property
might go together; and that when with my own ears I heard your
lordship tell that son that he had no right to any title!"
"What a man may say in a rage goes for nothing," answered the earl,
sulkily rather than fiercely.
"But not what a woman writes in sorrow!" rejoined Donal. "I know the
truth from the testimony of her you called your wife, as well as
from your own mouth!"
"The testimony of the dead, and at second hand, will hardly be
received in court!" returned the earl.
"If after your lordship's death, the man now called lord Forgue
dares assume the title of Morven, I will publish what I know. In
view of that, your lordship had better furnish him with the vouchers
of his mother's marriage. My lord, I again beg you to leave the
house."
The earl cast his eyes round the walls as if looking for a weapon.
Donal took him by the arm.
"There is no farther room for ceremony," he said. "I am sorry to be
rough with your lordship, but you compel me. Please remember I am
the younger and the stronger man.
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