Black Donald

Feared, shunned, belied ere youth had lost her force,
He hated men too much to feel remorse,
And thought the vice of wrath a sacred call,
To pay the injuries of some on all.

There was a laughing devil in his sneer,
That caused emotions both of rage and fear:
And where his frown of hatred darkly fell,
Hope, withering fled and mercy sighed farewell!

Byron

Herbert Greyson had been correct in his conjecture concerning the cause
of Colonel Le Noir's conduct in absenting himself from the trial, or
appearing there only in the person of his attorney. A proud, vain,
conceited man, full of Joseph Surfacisms, he could better have borne to
be arraigned upon the charge of murder than to face the accusation of
baseness that was about to be proved upon him. Being reasonably certain
as to what was likely to be the decision of the Orphans' Court, he was
not disappointed in hearing that judgment had been rendered in favor of
his ward and her friends. His one great disappointment had been upon
discovering the flight of Clara. For when he had ascertained that she
had fled, he knew that all was lost--and lost through Capitola, the
hated girl for whose destruction he had now another and a stronger
motive--revenge!

In this mood of mind three days before his departure to join his
regiment he sought the retreat of the outlaw. He chose an early hour of
the evening as that in which he should be most likely to find Black
Donald.