And was he not right to sing when the future seemed
so bright and pleasant? Oh, yes! they would live on the ocean, and she
would find how much pleasanter it was on the restless waters, with
their solemn sense of mystery, than on the crowded land.
"Was not the sea
Made for the free--
Land for courts and slaves alone?"
Moore was perfectly right. She would learn that when with a fair wind,
and all sail set, they were flying over the blue Pacific waters.
And then they would go home to Ireland to the ancestral home of the
Fitzgeralds, where he would lead her in under the arch, with
"CEAD MILLE FAILTHE" on it, and everyone would bless the fair young
bride. Why should he trouble himself about the crime of another? No! He
had made a resolve. and intended to keep it; he would put this secret
with which he had been entrusted behind his back, and would wander
about the world with Madge and--her father. He felt a sudden chill
come over him as he murmured the last words to himself "her father."
"I'm a fool," he said, impatiently, as he gathered up the reins, and
spurred his horse into a canter. "It can make no difference to me so
long as Madge remains ignorant; but to sit beside him, to eat with him,
to have him always present like a skeleton at a feast--God help me!"
He urged his horse into a gallop, and as he rushed over the turf, with
the fresh, cool night wind blowing keenly against his face, he felt a
sense of relief, as though he were leaving some dark spectre behind.
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