"Learn further to your confusion, Countess," pursued Lady Lake, "that the wretch, Luke Hatton, has made a full confession of his offence, wherein he declares that he was incited by you, and by you alone, on the offer of a large reward, to put my daughter and myself to death by slow poison." "By me alone!--incited by me!" cried Lady Exeter; "why, I opposed him. It is impossible he can have confessed thus. Hast thou done so, villain?" "I have," replied Luke Hatton, sullenly. "Then thou hast avouched a lie--a lie that will damn thee," said Lady Exeter. "Lord Roos knows it to be false, and can exculpate me. Speak, my Lord, I charge you, and say how it occurred." But the young nobleman remained silent. "Not a word--not a word in my favour," the Countess exclaimed, in a voice of anguish. "Nay, then I am indeed lost!" "You are lost past redemption," cried Lady Lake with an outburst of fierce exultation, and a look as if she would have trampled her beneath her feet. "You have forfeited honour, station, life. Guilty of disloyalty to your proud and noble husband, you have sought to remove by violent deaths those who stood between you and your lover. Happily your dreadful purpose has been defeated; but this avowal of your criminality with Lord Roos, signed by yourself and witnessed by his lordship and his Spanish servant,--this shall be laid within an hour before the Earl of Exeter." "My brain turns round. I am bewildered with all these frightful accusations," exclaimed the Countess distractedly. "I have made no confession,--have signed none." "Methought you said I had witnessed it, Madam?" cried Lord Roos, almost as much bewildered as Lady Exeter. "Will you deny your own handwriting, my Lord?" rejoined Lady Lake; "or will the Countess? Behold the confession, subscribed by the one, and witnessed by the other." "It is a forgery!" shrieked the Countess. "You have charged me with witchcraft; but you practise it yourself." "If I did not know it to be false, I could have sworn the hand was yours, Countess," cried Lord Roos; "and my own signature is equally skilfully simulated." "False or not," cried Lady Lake, "it shall be laid before Lord Exeter as I have said--with all the details--ay, and before the King." "Before the King!" repeated Lord Roos, as he drew near Lady Exeter, and whispered in her ear--"Countess, our sole safety is in immediate flight. Circumstances are so strong against us, that we shall never be able to disprove this forgery." "Then save yourself in the way you propose, my Lord," she rejoined, with scorn. "For me, I shall remain, and brave it out." The young nobleman made a movement towards the door. "You cannot go forth without my order, my Lord," cried Sir Thomas Lake. "It is guarded." "Perdition!" exclaimed Lord Roos. Again Lady Lake looked from one to the other with a smile of triumph. But it was presently checked by a look from her daughter, who made a sign to her to approach her.