"George Henderson" in the presence of the various witnesses whom Mrs. Macleod had produced. He also confessed that he had written the letter which Mrs. Macleod had given Petrie as coming from George Henderson. Finally, after Mrs. Macleod's arrest, a Highlander had come to him with a message from Mr. Macleod urging him to leave the country for his own safety. Household, however, did not take flight until the appearance of the Lord Advocate at Kilravock; then he went to Leith, and hid himself on board ship, where he was discovered by a Customs officer, and eventually arrested. This evidence changed the whole character of the trial, and the Lord Advocate was the first to admit that Henderson was innocent of the forgery, which was now fixed upon Mrs. Macleod. The records of the case do not give any definite information as to who actually signed the Duchess's name to the bill, but when Mrs. Macleod was finally arraigned this forgery was laid to her charge, and her offence must have been satisfactorily proved to the jury, for she was found guilty and sentenced to death. Two law officers, the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor-General, characterised the whole "as an artful and horrid contrivance, only discovered by the good providence of God." It is stated in the account published that Mrs. Macleod went to her execution dressed in a black robe with a large hoop, and a white fan in her hand. When on the gallows she herself took off the ornamental parts of her dress, and put the fatal cord about her neck with her own hands. She persisted to the last in denying her guilt. The Duchess of Gordon in this case was Lady Henrietta Mordaunt, daughter of the celebrated Charles Earl of Peterborough, and wife of Alexander, second Duke, whom she married in 1706, twenty years before the occurrences recorded. [Illustration] CHAPTER III. PROBLEMATICAL ERRORS. Captain Donellan and the Poisoning of Sir Theodosius Boughton: Donellan's Suspicious Conduct: Evidence of John Hunter, the great Surgeon: Sir James Stephen's View: Corroborative Story from his Father--The Lafarge Case: Madame Lafarge and the Cakes: Doctors differ as to the Presence of Arsenic in the Remains: Possible Guilt of Denis Barbier: Madame Lafarge's Condemnation: Pardoned by Napoleon III.--Charge against Madame Lafarge of stealing a School Friend's Jewels: Her Defence: Conviction--Madeleine Smith charged with Poisoning her _Fiancé:_ "Not proven": the Latest Facts--the Wharton-Ketchum Case in Baltimore, U.S.A.--The Story of the Perrys. CAPTAIN DONELLAN.