He was so astonished at her whole bearing, that he made no attempt to retire; and had not Alice, with inconceivable scorn, pointed to the door, and without any kind of respect bade a servant show him the way out, he would have remained even longer spell-bound by the very extravagant and extraordinary manner of the speech of Alice De Clinton. He departed, however, with much less pleasant sensations than those with which he had entered; and as he looked back upon that solitary mansion, he exclaimed in a distich, which afterwards, years afterwards, changed the name of the place, 'Goldwell is cold, and colder far than all This living corpse, a tenant of Cold Hall.' He returned to his cheerful friends at Freston, to narrate the adventure of his reception. They were not surprised at his declaration, 'That never in the face of woman did he see so cold-blooded a feature as that of Alice De Clinton.' Little did any of them at that time suspect the plot hatching against their peace. It was determined that the usual festivities of Christmas should be observed by De Freston as his ancestors had done before him; and Cavendish was invited to see the tenantry of the hospitable lord do justice to the long beloved and venerated old man. Latimer had declined living in the mansion of Humphrey Wingfield in Brook Street, Ipswich; and was looked upon as the future owner of Freston Castle and all its wide spread domain. He richly merited respect, and was as happy in the acknowledgment of every friend of De Freston and his daughter, as Albert, Prince of Great Britain, is at this moment in the hearts of Victoria's loyal subjects. But none are without enemies. Alice had managed to hire Wingfield House as her town residence, and strange did people think the difference between the lively possessor who left it, and the stern occupier who occasionally, with rigid cold pomp, occupied the state apartments. It was said, however, that she intended to move into the town at Christmas, and to leave _Cold Hall_ (as it is called to this day); and consequently she had wood conveyed from her own groves to the yards of the mansion, and made every preparation to have at least the rooms well warmed. But Alice had a burning within which few knew anything of, except her father confessor, Duncan, and those priests of Rome who worked upon her fanatic disposition. This was inflamed against all heretics, even to detest their abodes, and she had secretly resolved that the flame of Ellen--the E. of her consecrated candles--should be put out. How this was done may be better narrated in another chapter. This is sufficient to show how weak minds may be acted upon to do deeds, under the imagination of devotion, which are abhorrent to all truth, and such as pure religion would revolt at. 'Oh who can tell what prejudice may call Devotion, when the devil doth enthral?' CHAPTER XLVIII. THE PLOT.