preparations for the execution were being rapidly
pushed forward, and whenever Mary heard an officer enter her cell, she
thought it was to announce to her that her hour had come to die.

But if Mary was thus distressed at the preparations for the execution,
there was another person for whom the thought had infinite terror.
Amelia's maid, Juliette, for the first time realised the crime of which
she had been guilty, and when she saw the executioner at his work,
horror seemed to deprive her of her reason. When she sat down to eat
she could not swallow a bite, and her spirits became so low that she
was an object of general remark. When she retired to rest, her sleep
was disturbed by ghastly dreams, in which she saw Mary's head severed
from her body. But in spite of the remorse which gnawed her day and
night, the heart of the unhappy woman was hardened against the idea of
confessing her falsehood, and so Mary remained guilty in the eyes of
the law.

After much anxious deliberation the judge pronounced sentence upon
Mary. In consideration of her extreme youth and the unblemished
character which, up till now, she had enjoyed, the sentence of death
was not to be carried out; but instead, Mary and her father were to be
banished from the country, and all their furniture and possessions were
to be sold to make up, as far as possible, for the value of the ring,
and to pay the expenses of the trial.

Next morning at break of day the sentence was carried into execution,
and Mary and her father were conducted from the prison. Their road lay
past the Castle gate, and just then Juliette came out. Since the
publication of the news that the sentence of death was not to be
carried out, this wicked girl had recovered her spirits, and once more
allowed all her evil feelings against Mary to revive. So far from being
sorry for the banishment that was now inflicted upon Mary, she rejoiced
in the thought that Mary could no longer be feared as a rival in her
mistress's favour. After the trial was over, the Countess, seeing
Mary's basket of flowers on the sideboard, had said to Juliette, "Take
away that basket, that I may never have it before my eyes. The
recollections which it arouses in me are so painful that I cannot
endure the sight of it."

Now, as Mary and her father were passing the Castle gate, Juliette
called out to them, "Stop a minute. Here is your fine present; my
mistress would keep nothing from such people as you. Your glory has