"This a warrant!" cried the Earl, in a tone of bitter irony; "what, sir, do you know of warrants who tell me so? You have been duped, Sheriff, gulled--cheated; this is no warrant; a most foul, diabolical imposture! A pretty officer to leave his warrant! Up, all who love me, let us track the demons to their lair!" "That would be perhaps a difficult matter, my Lord; I never saw the warrant before, credit me," said Sheriff Murray. "Talk not to me of difficulty; if she is on the face of the globe I will find her; and woe! woe to her abductors!" "You think it an abduction?" "What else?--a vile, wicked scheme. Perhaps she is now in peril--under their mercy!--oh, God!" And the Earl clasped his hands in agony. "And who could her abductor be?--it is not possible it could be L'Estrange," said Sir Richard. "You have it!--you have it!--oh, eternal heavens!" cried the Earl, who scarce knew what he said; "you spoke like a Daniel!" "It is surely not a collusion--a plan between the two?--It looks devilish suspicious, by Jove!" "You are a cold-blooded villain to say so, John, even if you thought it. Oh! Powers above! I will find this out: there is a mystery about it, deep,--inscrutable. I will sift it! Oh, Ellen! Ellen! if you have played me false!--but no, it cannot be;--away, base suspicion! she could not do so! But woe to the author of this plot!--were he my own nearest, dearest relative, he should suffer!" "There is nothing to be done to-night," said the Sheriff. "Who says so?" cried the Earl, "moments are priceless now. I go to seek her; come, Dalkeith, we will go to the Duke's."