He had been strongly suspected of
two robberies before, one of which was coupled with an atrocious
murder. He had, she intimated, made pretensions to her hand as the
easiest and safest way of obtaining possession of her father's wealth;
and, on her refusing his addresses, if they could be termed so, in the
most positive terms, he had thrown out such obscure hints of
vengeance, as, joined with some imperfect assaults upon the house, had
kept her in frequent alarm, both on her father's account and her own.
Nigel, but that his feeling of respectful delicacy to the unfortunate
woman forebade him to do so, could here have communicated a
circumstance corroborative of her suspicions, which had already
occurred to his own mind. He recollected the hint that old Hildebrod
threw forth on the preceding night, that some communication betwixt
himself and Colepepper had hastened the catastrophe. As this
communication related to the plan which Hildebrod had been pleased to
form, of promoting a marriage betwixt Nigel himself and the rich
heiress of Trapbois, the fear of losing an opportunity not to be
regained, together with the mean malignity of a low-bred ruffian,
disappointed in a favourite scheme, was most likely to instigate the
bravo to the deed of violence which had been committed. The reflection
that his own name was in some degree implicated with the causes of
this horrid tragedy, doubled Lord Glenvarloch's anxiety in behalf of
the victim whom he had rescued, while at the same time he formed the
tacit resolution, that, so soon as his own affairs were put upon some
footing, he would contribute all in his power towards the
investigation of this bloody affair.
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