ld be concealed from him. But to be brief--an almost
impossible achievement for me, it seems--Sir John assured me of his
father's welcome, and it was arranged between us that I should take my
baptismal name, Francois de Lorraine, and passing for a French gentleman
on a visit to England, should go to Rutland with my friend. So it happened
through the strange workings of fate that I found help and refuge under my
enemy's roof-tree.

Kind old Lord Rutland welcomed me, as his son had foretold, and I was
convinced ere I had passed an hour under his roof that the feud between
him and Sir George was of the latter's brewing.

The happenings in Haddon Hall while I lived at Rutland I knew, of course,
only by the mouth of others; but for convenience in telling I shall speak
of them as if I had seen and heard all that took place. I may now say once
for all that I shall take that liberty throughout this entire history.

On the morning of the day after my departure from Haddon, Jennie Faxton
went to visit Dorothy and gave her a piece of information, small in
itself, but large in its effect upon that ardent young lady. Will
Fletcher, the arrow-maker at Overhaddon, had observed Dorothy's movements
in connection with Manners; and although Fletcher did not know who Sir
John was, that fact added to his curiosity and righteous indignation.

"It do be right that some one should tell the King of the Peak as how his
daughter is carrying on with a young man who does come here every day or
two to meet her, and I do intend to tell Sir George if she put not a stop
to it," said Fletcher to some of his gossips in Yulegrave churchyard one
Sunday afternoon.

Dorothy notified John, Jennie being the messenger, of Will's observations,
visual and verbal, and designated another place for meeting,--the gate
east of Bowling Green Hill. This gate was part of a wall on the east side
of the Haddon estates adjoining the lands of the house of Devonshire which
lay to the eastward. It was a secluded spot in the heart of the forest
half a mile distant from Haddon Hall.

Sir George, for a fortnight or more after my disappearance, enforced his
decree of imprisonment against Dorothy, and she, being unable to leave the
Hall, could not go to Bowling Green Gate to meet Sir John. Before I had
learned of the new trysting-place John had ridden thither several evenings
to meet Dorothy, but had found only Jennie bearing her mistress's excuses.
I supposed his journeyings