r. "I was in shallow water
then," said she--"but now!"

CHAPTER XX.

SIR CHARLES observed that he was never trusted alone. He remarked this,
and inquired, with a peculiar eye, why that was.

Lady Bassett had the tact to put on an innocent look and smile, and
say: "That is true, dearest. I _have_ tied you to my apron-string
without mercy. But it serves you right for having fits and frightening
me. You get well, and my tyranny will cease at once."

However, after this she often left him alone in the garden, to remove
from his mind the notion that he was under restraint from her.

Mr. Bassett observed this proceeding from his tower.

One day Mr. Angelo called, and Lady Bassett left Sir Charles in the
garden, to go and speak to him.

She had not been gone many minutes when a boy ran to Sir Charles, and
said, "Oh, sir, please come to the gate; the lady has had a fall, and
hurt herself."

Sir Charles, much alarmed, followed the boy, who took him to a side
gate opening on the high-road. Sir Charles rushed through this, and was
passing between two stout fellows that stood one on each side the gate,
when they seized him, and lifted him in a moment into a close carriage
that was waiting on the spot. He struggled, and cried loudly for
assistance; but they bundled him in and sprang in after him; a third
man closed the door, and got up by the side of the coachman. He drove
off, avoiding the village, soon got upon a broad road, and bowled along
at a great rate, the carriage being light, and drawn by two powerful
horses.

So cleverly and rapidly was it done that, but for a woman's quick ear,
the deed might not have been discovered for hours; but Mary Wells heard
the cry for help through an open window, recognized Sir Charles's
voice, and ran screaming downstairs to Lady Bassett: she ran wildly
out, with Mr. Angelo, to look for Sir Charles. He was nowhere to be
found. Then she ordered every horse in the stables to be saddled; and
she ran with Mary to the place where the cry had been heard.

For some time no intelligence whatever could be gleaned; but at last an
old man was found who said he had heard somebody cry out, and soon
after that a carriage had come tearing by him, and gone round the
corner: but this direction was of little value, on account of the many
roads, any one of which it might have taken.

However, it left no doubt that Sir Charles had been taken away from the
place by force.

Terror-stricken, and