"He explained that he was not the captain, but the captain's messenger, and he stood by all the time I was communicating the contents of the letter to Purcell. He was so close to us, that he must have heard all that passed. Under this belief, I turned suddenly to him and told him to go instantly for Captain Brand, and to tell him that the will must be changed, or he would be ruined. "His crafty, eager look so arrested me, that I gazed fixedly in his face for some minutes; and it seemed to me that I discovered a crime-stained and guileful soul in his eyes for they haunted me long afterward. "And I distinctly remember the words of the man who had accompanied him, as he rode away under the trees: "'_Gardez-tu_, my friend! You English take great news sourly. _Ma foi!_ you curse Mademoiselle Fortune herself when she smiles upon you the blandest!' "I heeded these words not all then. I recalled them one by one to-night from the hidden chamber of memory, and I protest that they hold their own significance in that daring plot. "Do you read nothing in this reminiscence beyond a woman's idle vagaries of fancy? "Will you believe it--only, that when I swear that the man, Roland Mortlake, who stood on the castle-steps with me that night, and the man, St. Udo Brand, who stood with me on the castle-steps to-night, are one? "I call upon you, in the interests of justice, to find the proofs of this infamous imposture. "I appeal to you, that you may do your duty by the dead and unveil a monster of crime. What has Mortlake done with St. Udo Brand? "Perhaps he has murdered him. Will you let a possible murderer escape you because a woman points him out? How do we know that the news of his being killed in battle was not true? And, being true, how do we know that Mortlake's hand was not the hand that destroyed the heir of Castle Brand? "How do we know that this plot, if sifted well, would not reveal in the suitor you sent me to-night a red-handed assassin? "Come to me in the morning and tell me what you are going to do. If you are going to do nothing, then I will carry on the contest alone, and trace the history of Roland Mortlake from the bottom step of Castle Brand, where I saw him first, pace by pace, to the foot of the gallows, where I shall see him last. "Yours Respectfully, "MARGARET WALSINGHAM. "TO MESSRS DAVENPORT & GAY." Late as it was she rang for the housekeeper, and gave orders that her letter should be conveyed to the lawyer's house that night. "Tell Symonds to give it to Mr. Davenport himself, and to trust it to no one else," she said. The housekeeper met the feverish flash of her young mistress' eyes, and took the envelope from her hand with much uneasiness.