She hastened to her appointment with the duchess, when she did not fail to tell her how faithfully she had obeyed her injunctions, how resolutely she had even turned from his prison gates, when her heart burned to rush to her husband; but at the same time she imparted to her the hopes she entertained of seeing him through the means of the kind-hearted guard. "If all that is said be true," answered the duchess archly, "it is not so difficult to gain access to the prisoners; a golden key is often more potent than an iron bar! Meantime, I would advise your exerting all the influence you may possess with my Lord Townshend and the Duke of Richmond. My husband tells me they are both likely to advocate measures of severity; and yet I should hope the Duke of Richmond would remember that the Earl of Derwentwater is his kinsman. The Earls of Danby and of Nottingham I spoke with last night, and I trust with good effect. They both promised they would second any petition from the prisoners. Some will certainly be pardoned; but, dearest cousin, we must exert ourselves to the utmost, and yet our zeal must be tempered with discretion. The earl your husband has, as I told you, many enemies; and I should be a false friend did I not confess to you that he is not one of those who are likely to be most leniently dealt with." Lady Nithsdale clasped her hands with such an expression of anguish that the duchess hastened to add, "But I know not, neither can any one know, in truth, what will be the sentence of the court. 'Tis all conjecture." "But why, O why, should conjecture be unfavourable to my lord?" "Nay, I cannot say. It may be--a Catholic,--his property on the very borders of the two countries,--his family so long attached to the Stuarts;--but all may yet be well. Circumstances may arise in his favour. Should the sentence be--be such as to blast our hopes,--they speak of a petition to be signed by the prisoners." "My lord will never put his name to anything that may savour of dishonour. I know not what this petition may prove; but if it is such as should change any sentence that may have passed, I marvel if it can be such as it would become my lord to sign,--or such"--she added emphatically,--"or such as I could wish him to sign:" her voice broke, and she burst into tears at thus, as it were, with her own lips pronouncing his doom. "His life," she continued, as if to justify herself for what she had uttered, "must not be preserved at the price of honour!" and her delicate form reared itself, and her eye glanced upwards, as if to seek from Heaven the strength she so much needed. The duchess sighed. "What a noble spirit," she thought, "is probably destined to be crushed! what a generous heart, in all probability, will be condemned to drink the bitter cup of sorrow to the very dregs!" She cast her dark bright eyes on the ground to conceal her emotion.