eemed to tally with the
murderer's.

This solitary circumstance, which contradicted my other impressions,
was, I say, more effectual in making me dismiss the thought of personal
revenge on Gerald than the motives which virtue and religion should
have dictated. The deep desire of vengeance is the calmest of all the
passions, and it is the one which most demands certainty to the reason,
before it releases its emotions and obeys their dictates. The blow which
was to do justice to Isora I had resolved should not be dealt till I had
obtained the most utter certainty that it fell upon the true criminal.
And thus, though I cherished through all time and through all change the
burning wish for retribution, I was doomed to cherish it in secret, and
not for years and years to behold a hope of attaining it. Once only I
vented my feelings upon Gerald. I could not rest or sleep or execute the
world's objects till I had done so; but when they were thus once vented,
methought I could wait the will of time with a more settled patience,
and I re-entered upon the common career of life more externally fitted
to fulfil its duties and its aims.

That single indulgence of emotion followed immediately after my
resolution of not forcing Gerald into bodily contest. I left my sword,
lest I might be tempted to forget my determination. I rode to Devereux
Court; I entered Gerald's chamber, while my horse stood unstalled at the
gate. I said but few words, but each word was a volume. I told him to
enjoy the fortune he had acquired by fraud, and the conscience he had
stained with murder. "Enjoy them while you may," I said, "but know that
sooner or later shall come a day when the blood that cries from earth
shall be heard in Heaven,--and _your_ blood shall appease it. Know, if
I seem to disobey the voice at my heart, I hear it night and day; and I
only live to fulfil at one time its commands."

I left him stunned and horror-stricken. I flung myself on my horse, and
cast not a look behind as I rode from the towers and domains of which I
had been despoiled. Never from that time would I trust myself to meet
or see the despoiler. Once, directly after I had thus braved him in his
usurped hall, he wrote to me. I returned the letter unopened. Enough
of this: the reader will now perceive what was the real nature of my
feelings of revenge; and will appreciate the reasons which throughout
this history will cause me never or rarely to recur to those
feelings a