Having thus thrown down his gauntlet, the musicians played a dead march,
and there was certainly something wild and fearful in the association
produced by these strains of death and the fatality of encountering
him. This challenge he repeated at the same place and hour during three
successive days, after which he calmly awaited the result.
In the mean time, certain circumstances came to light, which not only
developed many cruel and profligate traits in his disposition, but also
enabled the worthy inhabitants of the town to ascertain several facts
relating to his connections, which in no small degree astonished them.
The candid and modest female whose murder and robbery had been planned
by Nell M'Collum, resided with him as his wife; at least if he did not
acknowledge her as such, no person who had an opportunity of witnessing
her mild and gentle deportment, ever for a moment conceived her capable
of living with him in any other character, his conduct to her, however,
was brutal in the extreme, nor was his open and unmanly cruelty lessened
by the misfortune of her having lost the money which he had accumulated.
With Nell M'Collum he was also acquainted, for he had given orders that
she should be admitted to him whenever she deemed it necessary. Nell,
though now at large, found her motions watched with a vigilance which no
ingenuity on her part, could baffle.
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