THE DUKE’S DAUGHTER AND THE FUGITIVES “Lady, you come hither to be married to this count?” “I do.” --_Much Ado about Nothing._ THE DUKE’S DAUGHTER AND THE FUGITIVES BY MRS OLIPHANT IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. I. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCXC TO A. W. KINGLAKE, ESQ., THE GRACIOUS, KIND, AND GENTLE READER, WHOM IT IS THE PRIDE OF A HUMBLE NOVELIST TO PLEASE, This Little Book IS INSCRIBED. NOTE. It is perhaps necessary to explain that the following story was published in serial form under the title of ‘Lady Jane,’ but the subsequent use of a similar title for another work has suggested the expediency of a change of name. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. THE DUKE’S DAUGHTER-- CHAP. PAGE I. HER PARENTS, 3 II. HERSELF, 23 III. HER LOVER, 45 IV. A DISAPPOINTMENT, 74 V. THE ANTICIPATIONS OF LADY JANE, 101 VI. THE ART OF STRATEGY, 128 VII. SUSPENSE, 155 VIII. THE DECISIVE MOMENT, 178 IX. ACTING FOR HERSELF, 218 X. A MOMENTOUS INTERVIEW, 234 THE DUKE’S DAUGHTER. CHAPTER I. HER PARENTS. The Duchess was a very sensible woman. This was her character, universally acknowledged. She might not perhaps be so splendid a person as a duchess ought to be. She had never been beautiful, nor was she clever in the ordinary sense of the word; but she was in the full sense of the word a sensible woman. She had, there is no doubt, abundant need for this faculty in her progress through the world. Hers had not been a holiday existence, notwithstanding her high position at the head of one of the proudest houses and noblest families in England. It is a sort of compensation to us for the grandeur of the great to believe that, after all, their wealth and their high position do them very little good. “The village maidens of the plain Salute me lowly as they go, Envious they mark my silken train, Nor think a countess can have woe. The simple nymphs! they little know How far more happy’s their estate, To smile for joy than sigh for woe, To be content than to be great.”