they
wished to see Martin tricked into marrying me. I was firm; I would not
consent! I had written that letter believing myself to be dying.
If Martin came, I would not see him now. If he was forced into my
presence, I should tell him the truth.

"My father left me, speechless with rage. For the next week my door
was kept carefully locked, and no one but the doctor and the nurse
were permitted to enter. Yet I learnt afterwards all that happened.
Marie, my maid, who was slowly dying of consumption, was moved into
the principal bedchamber; and when Martin arrived, she was made to
personate me. It was the priest who gained her consent; the priest who
confessed her and gave her absolution. His share of the spoil was to
be the De Vaux estates, handed over to the Church if ever they carried
out their plot successfully. Martin came, and, as he thought, granted
that fervent prayer of mine. They stood around him with drawn swords;
they would not allow him to approach the bed. As soon as the ceremony
was over, he was thrust from the castle.

"It happened that in less than a week Marie died. From my bed, which
faced the window, I saw the little funeral procession leave the
castle--my father and Count Hirsfeld the chief mourners. I saw Martin
following away off, with sorrowing face, and I was glad then that
I had not deceived him. I saw him weeping over the grave which he
believed to be mine. The day afterwards my son was born.

"As soon as Adrian could crawl about, he was taken from me by the
priests. They sent him to Italy, where he grew up a stranger to me.
When he returned, I did not know him. I spoke to him of that false
marriage; I wept for his lack of parentage. He knew everything; he
spoke to me of it coldly, but without unkindness. He was a son of the
Church, he said; he needed no other mother.

"He dwelt for awhile at the monastery, and it was while he was there
that I became suspicious. My father, and he, and the Superior of the
monastery were always together. They seemed to be urging something
upon him, which he was loath to undertake. By degrees I found it all
out. Adrian was to go to England as my lawful son and claim the De
Vaux estates for the Church. At first he was unwilling; but by degrees
they won upon him. Warning was sent to Martin de Vaux, and he came
here swiftly--to his death! I was kept a close prisoner, but I found
out everything that was happening. For years afterwards, Adrian was
undecided whether