day before Madame was to arrive, hardly an hour passed before
I perceived that she also, although she knew it not, had her part to
play. I cannot tell what reward they offered Carford for successful
service; if a man who sells himself at a high price be in any way less a
villain than he who takes a penny, I trust that the price was high; for
in pursuance of the effort to obtain Monmouth's confidence and an
ascendency over him, Carford made use of the lady whom he had courted,
and, as I believed, still courted, for his own wife. He threw her in
Monmouth's way by tricks too subtle for her to detect, but plain to an
attentive observer. I knew from her father that lately he had again
begged her hand, and that she had listened with more show of favour. Yet
he was the Duke's very humble servant in all the plans which that
headstrong young man now laid against the lady's peace and honour. Is
there need to state the scheme more plainly? In those days a man might
rise high and learn great secrets, if he knew when to shut his eyes and
how to knock loud before he entered the room.

I should have warned her. It is true; but the mischief lay in the fact
that by no means could I induce her to exchange a word with me. She was
harder by far to me than she had shewn herself in London. Perhaps she
had heard how I had gone to Chelsea; but whether for good reason or bad,
my crime now seemed beyond pardon. Stay; perhaps my condition was below
her notice; or sin and condition so worked together that she would have
nothing of me, and I could do nothing but look on with outward calm and
hidden sourness while the Duke plied her with flatteries that soon grew
to passionate avowals, and Carford paid deferential suit when his
superior was not in the way. She triumphed in her success as girls will,
blind to its perils as girls are; and Monmouth made no secret of his
hopes of success, as he sat between Carford's stolid face and my
downcast eyes.

"She's the loveliest creature in the world," he would cry. "Come, drink
a toast to her!" I drank silently, while Carford led him on to
unrestrained boasts and artfully fanned his passion.

At last--it was the evening of the day before Madame was to come--I met
her where she could not avoid me, by the Constable's Tower, and alone. I
took my courage in my hands and faced her, warning her of her peril in
what delicate words I could find. Alas, I made nothing of it. A scornful
jest at me and my righteousness