be secret--only let it take place at once, so that our child may be legitimate!” Thus spoke Octavia Manners on that occasion; and the Earl of Ellingham, her violater, consented to all that she asked. They were married with so much privacy that even Miranda--the faithful gipsy girl who had formed so strong an attachment to Octavia--remained ignorant of the important occurrence. But the very next day Octavia fled! No affection had she for the noble who had ruined her--who had been the cause of her severance from the object of her first and only love: she had only asked him to marry her for the sake of the honour of their child’s parentage--and, the ceremony being performed, she withdrew herself into the strictest solitude and obscurity, to brood over her woes and sufferings in secret! Such was the substance of that portion of Octavia’s own diary which revealed to Charles Hatfield the fact that the injured girl was indeed the Countess of Ellingham when her child was born! And that child’s career could be traced--yes, satisfactorily traced--step by step, by means of the papers which the young man had taken from the leathern case, and the packet of letters that he had likewise found in the recess;--and it was evident, beyond the least possibility of doubt, that the individual whom the world had known as Thomas Rainford, and whom it now knew as Mr. Hatfield,--it was clear, even beyond the remotest ground of suspicion to the contrary, that this individual was the rightful Earl of Ellingham! Recollect, too, reader, that Charles Hatfield had become firmly impressed with the belief that he was the _legitimate_ offspring of his parents;--and now, therefore, conceive the wild enthusiasm of his delight, when he came to the conclusion that he was in reality a Viscount by present rank, and had an Earldom in the perspective! Forgotten was the fact that had ere now stunned and stupefied him,--the fact that his father was the notorious highwayman, Thomas Rainford:--he thought of that no more, in the delirium of his rapture at the idea of having a noble title within his reach. But had he not, on the previous day, assured Lady Frances Ellingham that he envied only the greatness which had made itself, and not that which was obtained by the accident of birth? Yes: and at the time he conscientiously believed that he spoke his own thoughts correctly. Now, however, that the temptation appeared to be within his reach, it possessed charms and attractions of irresistible power! Recalling to mind the sounding titles of the object of his admiration and heroic worship, he began to fancy that _the Right Honourable the Earl of Ellingham_ was not comparatively so very insignificant, even when uttered after the swelling appellations of _His Royal Highness Field Marshal the Prince of Montoni, Captain-General of the Castelcicalan Army, and Heir-apparent to the Grand Ducal Throne_.