"At this sir knight flamed up with ire!
His great chest heaved! his eyes flashed fire.
The crimson that suffused his face
To deepest purple now gave place."
Who can describe the frenzy of Old Hurricane upon discovering the fraud
that had been practised upon him by Black Donald?
It was told him the next morning in his tent, at his breakfast table,
in the presence of his assembled family, by the Rev. Mr. Goodwin.
Upon first hearing it, he was incapable of anything but blank staring,
until it seemed as though his eyes must start from their sockets!
Then his passion, "not loud but deep," found utterance only in emphatic
thumps of his walking stick upon the ground!
Then, as the huge emotion worked upward, it broke out in grunts, groans
and inarticulate exclamations!
Finally it burst forth as follows: "Ugh! ugh! ugh! Fool! dolt! blockhead! Brute that I've been! I wish
somebody would punch my wooden head! I didn't think the demon himself
could have deceived me so! Ugh! Nobody but the demon could have done
it! and he is the demon! The very demon himself! He does not
disguise--he transforms himself! Ugh! ugh! ugh! that I should have been
such a donkey!"
"Sir, compose yourself! We are all liable to suffer deception," said
Mr. Goodwin.
"Sir," broke forth Old Hurricane, in fury, "that wretch has eaten at my
table! Has drunk wine with me!! Has slept in my bed!!! Ugh! ugh!!
ugh!!!"