blame myself severely for it. But I could not part with a line I had
received from you. I inclosed the letters in a little coffer, which I
deposited in a secret drawer of that cabinet, as in a place of perfect
safety. The coffer and its contents mysteriously disappeared. How it was
purloined I cannot inform you."

"Do your suspicions alight on no one?" she inquired.

"They have fallen on several; but I have no certainty that I have been
right in any instance," he replied. "That I have some spy near me, I am
well aware; and if I detect him, he shall pay for his perfidy with his
life."

"Hist!" cried Lady Exeter. "Did you not hear a noise?"

"No," he rejoined. "Where?"

She pointed to the little passage leading to the ante-chamber. He
instantly went thither, and examined the place, but without discovering
any listener.

"There is no one," he said, as he returned. "No one, in fact, could have
obtained admittance without my knowledge, for my Spanish servant, Diego,
in whom I can place full confidence, is stationed without."

"I distrust that man, William," she observed. "When I asked whom you
thought had removed the letters, my own suspicions had attached to him."

"I do not think he would have done it," Lord Roos replied. "He has ever
served me faithfully; and, besides, I have a guarantee for his fidelity
in the possession of a secret on which his own life hangs. I can dispose
of him as I please."

"Again that sound!" exclaimed the Countess. "I am sure some one is
there."

"Your ears have deceived you," said the young nobleman, after examining
the spot once more, and likewise the secret entrance by which the
Countess had approached the chamber. "I heard nothing, and can find
nothing. Your nerves are shaken, and make you fanciful."

"It may be so," she rejoined. But it was evident she was not convinced,
for she lowered her tones almost to a whisper as she continued. It might
be that the question she designed to put was one she dared not ask
aloud. "What means do you purpose to employ in the execution of your
design?"

"The same as those employed by Somerset and his Countess in the removal
of Sir Thomas Overbury; but more expeditious and more certain," he
replied under his breath.

"Dreadful!" she exclaimed, with a shudder. "But the same judgment that
overtook the Somersets may overtake us. Such crimes are never hidden."

"Crimes fouler than theirs have never been brought to light, and never
will. There wa