Thrice Wedded, but Only Once a Wife — page 120: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THRICE WEDDED. 111 As he slowly ascended the side of the rugged cliffs, he began to ponder upon the strange warning he had re- ceived. _Who could have written it? Who was there in all the country who knew him familiarly enough to call him Robert Ellerton? Where had he seen that handsome handwriting before? It was somewhere away back in the dim past; but when or where he could not recall, and the more he tried to remem- ber the more puzzled he grew. Neither could he imagine what the danger was that lurked in his path. Had he been in a country among barbarians, he might well give heed to such a warning; but here, in such a quiet town, where almost every one gave his attention to cultiva- tion and learning, it could not be possible that any very great danger could threaten him. Still, the more he meditated upon it, the more uneasy he oTew. By this time he had reached the summit of the cliff. The prospect from this point was attractive. Far, far away as the eve could reach was the sea in all its grandeur, and reflecting from its silver bosom the many-tinted glories of yonder sky, while just at his feet its waves gently washed the huge crags with its foam and yellow sands; and invol- untarily he murmured those beautiful lines from ‘Tennyson’s en; | ‘Break, break, break, At the foot of thy crags, oh, sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me.’’ With a feeling half of pleasure, half of melancholy at his heart, he turned to leave the enchanted spot, when a shrill cry; as of some one in pain, startled him. Turning his eyes in the direction whence the sound pro- - ceeded, he saw just below him a noble horse, madly rearing and plunging among acluster of bushes, while near by lay the prostrate form of a man apparently much injured, judg- ing from his repeated cries and shrieks. Without a moments thought, except that of helping a suffering fellow-being, Mr. Ellerton put spurs to his horse and dashed recklessly down the narrow path of the clifi— — . out of sight of the village, out of the reach of help—on, on into danger and treachery, and into the hands of a set of vile and heartless villains! Eomicbooks (e{o)