The Captain, and most of the others readily availed themselves of this leave, and only the Earl, Wilton, Captain Wilson, and two foresters kept up the search; they too, after spending nearly all the night in rain, gave it up as a bad matter, and weary, wet, and disheartened, entered the Towers in the gray dawning, and, changing their drenched garments, sought a few hours' repose. Early next morning the search was recommenced by the woodmen and other servants. A sorrowful party sat down to breakfast, and every one looked at his neighbour in dismay. Ellen seemed most affected of all. In silence the meal passed away, or if anything was spoken it was some vague conjecture, or hope expressed all would yet turn out well. The Earl was absent as well as his brother; they had ridden off to Edinburgh for detectives, and also to make inquiries and give it publicity in the papers. They did not return till late at night, to find, of course, no news had been gained, nor was any trace to be found of the unhappy young man, living nor dead. Not to weary our readers more, we need only say a week's search, even with the best detectives, proved utterly useless; and though all who had seen the missing man were examined by oath, nothing transpired beyond the fact that he was missing, and no trace could be gained, nor clue found to his fate. It was a wonder and topic of the papers for a week, and immense rewards were offered for his body, alive or dead, for it soon began to gain a wide circulation that he must have met with foul play. At last, like everything else, time proved a grand cooler of excitement, and the remarkable disappearance of the young Captain was talked of less and less, till, after a fortnight had passed away, it ceased to excite any more interest in the public mind, and was added to the list of unrevealed secrets of crime. As a matter of course this untoward event broke up the party that met for pleasure at the Towers. Mr. Ravensworth and his son and daughters were the first to leave, then followed Mr. Lennox, who waited till the Duke took his departure also, and accompanied him so far as his home on his way to Edinburgh. In a week only the Marquis and Marchioness, the Captain and his friend Sir Richard, and another guest, the naval commander, remained. Ellen, we have said, was much affected by this sudden and unaccountable disappearance of her old admirer; she feared there was guilt in it, and dreaded to hear the _denouement_; it was a subject she often talked of, and she perhaps more than any one else, feared there was something terrible connected with it; this fear she told Lord Wentworth, who however disregarded it and tried to cheer her up, for it had taken a great hold on her mind, more especially as she seemed to have been the prime cause of the catastrophe. Lord Wentworth almost daily rode to see his intended, and in this way two weeks passed away since the fatal night, still there was no clue to the mystery. CHAPTER XXI.