"Carrol, the Deputy Marshal, ushered her thither by her own desire, on

yesterday afternoon; Lambourne and the Warder both found her there at an

early hour this morning."

"Was Tressilian there with her?" said Leicester, in the same hurried

tone.

"No, my lord. You may remember," answered Varney, "that he was that

night placed with Sir Nicholas Blount, under a species of arrest."

"Did Carrol, or the other fellows, know who she was?" demanded

Leicester.

"No, my lord," replied Varney; "Carrol and the Warder had never seen the

Countess, and Lambourne knew her not in her disguise. But in seeking

to prevent her leaving the cell, he obtained possession of one of her

gloves, which, I think, your lordship may know."

He gave the glove, which had the Bear and Ragged Staff, the Earl's

impress, embroidered upon it in seed-pearls.

"I do--I do recognize it," said Leicester. "They were my own gift. The

fellow of it was on the arm which she threw this very day around my

neck!" He spoke this with violent agitation.

"Your lordship," said Varney, "might yet further inquire of the lady

herself respecting the truth of these passages."

"It needs not--it needs not," said the tortured Earl; "it is written

in characters of burning light, as if they were branded on my very

eyeballs! I see her infamy-I can see nought else; and--gracious

Heaven!--for this vile woman was I about to commit to danger the lives

of so many noble friends, shake the foundation of a lawful throne, carry

the sword and torch through the bosom of a peaceful land, wrong the

kind mistress who made me what I am, and would, but for that hell-framed

marriage, have made me all that man can be! All this I was ready to do

for a woman who trinkets and traffics with my worst foes!--And thou,

villain, why didst thou not speak sooner?"

"My lord," said Varney, "a tear from my lady would have blotted out

all I could have said. Besides, I had not these proofs until this very

morning, when Anthony Foster's sudden arrival with the examinations

and declarations, which he had extorted from the innkeeper Gosling and

others, explained the manner of her flight from Cumnor Place, and my own

researches discovered the steps which she had taken here."

"Now, may God be praised for the light He has given! so full, so

satisfactory, that there breathes not a man in England who shall call

my proceeding rash, or my revenge unjust.--And yet, Varney, so young,

so fair, so fawning, and so false! Hence, then, her hatred to thee, my

trusty, my well-beloved servant, because you withstood her plots, and

endangered her paramour's life!"




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