"The assault was so sudden and terrible that I staggered back, and
nearly fell over the grave.
"Then regaining my self-possession, I caught Judge Conway by the throat
in turn, hurled him from me, and stood confronting him, pale, panting,
my throat bleeding--and resolved if he attacked me again to put him to
death with the first weapon upon which I could lay my hand.
"He was, meanwhile, struggling in the hands of his friends, who, by
main force, held him back.
"'Let me go!' he shouted, foaming at the mouth with rage--'that man
murdered my brother! I will take the law into my own hands! he shall
not leave this spot alive! He dares to come here in the presence of the
dead body of George Conway--and he is his murderer!'
"These words were rather howled than uttered. The speaker seemed to
have lost his reason, from pure excess of rage. If his friends had not
restrained him by main force, he would have thrown himself upon me a
second time, when one of us would have lost his life, colonel, for I
was now as violently enraged as himself.
"That _I_ should be thus publicly branded with the basest crime! that
the representative of the old and honorable house of the Davenants,
should be thus grossly insulted, his person assailed, his good name
torn from him--that he should be denounced thus in the presence of all
as a felon and murderer!
"'You are insane, sir!' I at length said, struggling to regain my
coolness.
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