The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

258 1 he Highland Monthly.
Dillon, almost from the first moment of being introduced
to her, felt a mad passion in his breast, whispering, as it
were, that, b}- fair means or by foul, he should make her
his own. He was, as a rule, upright and honourable, and
would scorn, under ordinary circumstances, to do a mean
or an unworthy action ; but he was also one of those
persons in whose minds certain passions lie dormant, and
which, when once aroused, will take full possession of
the soul, to the exclusion of every just and noble sentiment.
It mattered not to him, now that his passions were aroused
within him, that Mar)' had plighted her faith to his friend ;
it mattered not to him that that friend had made him his
confidant—he vowed that Mar}- Murra\' should be his,
were it necessary to slay his friend to gain his purpose.
Though thus blinded by his passions, yet he had control
sufficient over himself to exercise that tact and judgment
necessary to conceal the state of his mind from the object
of his passion, and also from Arthur Bothwell. The time
came, however, when they had to quit Scotland to join their
regiment, x-^.rthur, ere departing, had the happiness of
succeeding in extracting from his sweetheart the promise
that she would be united to him in the following summer ;
and, with a heart full of jo}-, amounting almost to ecstac}-,
he imparted to Dillon the delightful prospect before him.
Dillon, of course, congratulated him with all apparent
sincerity, though in reality he felf such pangs of jealous
rage burning within him that, to conceal the true nature of
his feelings towards him, he found it necessary to avoid his
company as much as possible.
xA. week or two after their arrival at headquarters the
Soudan war broke out, and Dillon received, with something
akin to sa\-age joy, orders to accompan\- Arthur and a
detachment of soldiers to the seat of war. The cause of
Dillon's joy was not the prospect of seeing and engaging
in some hard fighting, but because his black heart whispered
to him that there was a possibility of Arthur falling in
battle, and thus leaving the wa)- clear for himself to win