The
loss of this money certainly stung him to the soul, and caused his
unfortunate wife to suffer a tenfold degree of persecution and misery.
When to this we add his sudden passion for Ellen Neil, we may easily
conceive what she must have endured. Nell, at all events, felt satisfied
that she had shaped the strong passions of her savage dupe in the way
best calculated to gratify that undying spirit of vengeance which she
had so long nurtured against the family of Lamh Laudher. The Dead Boxer,
too, was determined to prosecute his amour with Ellen Neil, not more to
gratify his lawless affection for her than his twofold hatred of Lamh
Laudher.
At length nine o'clock arrived, and the scene must change to the
northern part of Sheemus Neil's orchard. The Dead Boxer threw a cloak
around him, and issuing through the back door of the inn, entered the
garden, which was separated from the orchard only by a low clipped hedge
of young whitethorn, in the middle of which stood of a small gate. In a
moment he was in the orchard, and from behind its low wall he perceived
a female proceeding to the north side muffled like himself in a cloak,
which he immediately recognized to be that of his wife. His teeth became
locked together with the most deadly resentment; his features twitched
with the convulsive spasms of rage, and his nostrils were distended
as if his victims stood already within his grasp.
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