He confessed that, as far as he knew, no one of the name of Madame de Vicenza ever existed. The “Duchess” was a figment of Mr. Candover’s brain, and “The Briars” had been rented by him. It was also discovered that the premises which poor Audrey had believed to be rented in her name, and which had actually been paid for with her money, were really taken by Mr. Candover in the name of his sister, Mademoiselle Laure. The various documents which she had been made to sign were concoctions of his own, and the “solicitor” to whom he had introduced her had been one of his own creatures. As for Tom Gossett, he had been chiefly employed as a tout, to discover likely victims for his employer. In his employment as a solicitor’s clerk in the city he had unhappily been able to find out all the details about Gerard Angmering’s habits and ways, which had been necessary to involve him in Candover’s net. Durley Diggs had been chiefly employed as a card-sharper, in which capacity he had used his misdirected abilities to bad purpose both in Paris and in England. Mademoiselle Laure had been clever enough to keep out of the confederacy, as far as could be proved. But although she now posed as the victim of her half-brother’s deception, and professed to have known nothing whatever about the various crimes in which he and his subordinates had been involved, it was strongly suspected, not only that she had given him all the assistance in her power, but that the comparatively small value of the property left by him, and her speedy disappearance to the Continent as soon as the trial was over, were facts not unconnected with each other, and of an extremely suspicious nature. All three confederates got terms of penal servitude, and though it was believed that there were other members of the gang who had not been brought to justice, there was reason for thinking that not only was the gang completely broken up, but that all the chief offenders had been dealt with. The effect of the revelations made at the trial was enormous. Mr. Candover’s social position had been so well established, his friends and acquaintances had been so uniformly in the best set, his fame as a connoisseur and collector had been so widespread, that the whole story of his delinquencies came as a bombshell upon society. The result was fortunate for Gerard and his wife. For while no one could boast that he had detected the cloven hoof, no one could cast much blame upon Audrey and her husband for the ease with which they had been deceived. They became, indeed, a sort of hero and heroine in the public eye, not a little to their discomfiture.