“‘We are alone, sir, and I can speak without being overheard by these devils who have betrayed and are about to murder you! Do not interrupt me sir!--the time is short!--you must know every thing at once, in an hour it would be too late! The man calling himself Mortimer is probably within a hundred yards of us at this moment. The woman you have married is----his wife. Stop, sir!--do not strike me!--listen! I know the truth of every thing now. She talked with him for an hour under the big cedar, near the parsonage last night. He will see her again to-night, and in this house--hear me to the end, sir! You will not harm him; you will care nothing for all this; you will not know it, for you will be dead, sir!’ “At these words I must have turned deadly pale, for Nighthawk hastened to my side, and placed his arm around me to support me. But I did not need his assistance. In an instant I was as calm as I am at this moment. I quietly removed the arm of Nighthawk, and said in a low tone:-- “‘How do you know this?’ “‘I overheard their talk,’ he replied, in a husky voice, and looked at me with infinite tenderness as he spoke. ‘I was coming to see you at the parsonage, where I thought you had gone, sir. I could not bear to keep away from my old master’s son any longer; and let him get married without making up, and having him feel kindly again to me. Well, sir, I had just reached the big cedar, when I saw _the lady_ come out of the house, hasten toward the cedar, and hide herself in the shadow, within a few feet of me. No sooner had she done so, than I saw a man come from the rear of the house, straight to the cedar, and as he drew nearer I recognized Mortimer. Madam coughed slightly, as though to give him the signal; he soon reached her; and then they began to talk. I was hidden by the trunk of the tree, and the shadow of the heavy boughs, reaching nearly to the ground; so I heard every word they said, without being discovered.’ “‘What was it they said?’ “‘I can not repeat their words, sir, but I can tell you what I learned from their talk.’ “‘Tell me,’ I said. “‘First, I discovered that madam had been married to that man more than a year before you saw her.’ “‘Yes.’ “‘Before which she had been tried, convicted, and confined for six months in a prison in New York, as a thief. You turn pale, sir; shall I stop?’ “‘No, go on,’ I said.