He himself departed without a moment's delay, farther than was necessary
to make this arrangement.
At first he spurred his horse at a quick pace through an avenue of the
park, as if, by rapidity of motion, he could stupify the confusion of
feelings with which he was assailed. But as the road grew wilder and
more sequestered, and when the trees had hidden the turrets of the
castle, he gradually slackened his pace, as if to indulge the painful
reflections which he had in vain endeavoured to repress. The path in
which he found himself led him to the Mermaiden's Fountain, and to the
cottage of Alice; and the fatal influence which superstitious belief
attached to the former spot, as well as the admonitions which had
been in vain offered to him by the inhabitant of the latter, forced
themselves upon his memory. "Old saws speak truth," he said to himself,
"and the Mermaiden's Well has indeed witnessed the last act of rashness
of the heir of Ravenswood. Alice spoke well," he continued, "and I am
in the situation which she foretold; or rather, I am more deeply
dishonoured--not the dependant and ally of the destroyer of my father's
house, as the old sibyl presaged, but the degraded wretch who has
aspired to hold that subordinate character, and has been rejected with
disdain.
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