f 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. He instantly threw
himself over the wall, and nothing but the crashing weight of his tread
could have saved the lives of the two unsuspecting persons before him.
Startled, however, by the noise of his footsteps, Lamh Laudher turned
round to observe who it was that followed them, and immediately the
massy and colossal black now stripped of his cloak--for he had thrown it
aside--stood in their presence. The female instinctively drew the cloak
round her face, and Lamh Laudher was about to ask why he followed them,
when the Boxer approached him in an attitude of assault.

With a calmness almost unparalleled under the circumstances, Lamh
Laudher desired the female by no means to cling to him.

"If you do," said he, "I am murdered where I stand."

"No," she shrieked, "you shall not. Stand back, man, stand back, if you
murder him I will take care you shall suffer for it. Stand back. Lamh
Laudher never injured you."

"Ha!" exclaimed the Boxer, in reply; "why, what is this! Who have we
here?"

Ellen, for it was she, had already thrown back the cloak from her
features, and stepped forward between them.

"Well, I am glad it is you," said the black, "and so may