, and said, to our amazement--

"Captain Trevor! You know me. You can and must bear me witness, and
do me justice--"

"You! I have seen you before--but--where? I beg your pardon," he
said, bewildered.

"You remember Sault St. Pierre farm?" she said.

"Sault St. Pierre! What? You are Mrs. Lea! Good heavens! Where is
your mother?"

"My mother is dead, sir. You were the first person who made known to
her that her husband, my father, was not dead, but had taken--or
pretended to take--an English woman for his wife."

"Wait!" thundered Fulk, "whatever my father did was ignorantly and
honourably done!"

Bertram was as pale as death, and looked from one of us to the other,
and at last, he gasped out--

"And that--was what she meant?"

"There, sir," said Hester, turning to Torwood, "You see your brother
cannot deny it! You will not refuse justice to me, and my son."

I fancy she expected that the house was to be given up to her, and that
we were only to remain there on her sufferance, perhaps till after the
funeral.

My brother spoke, "Justice will no doubt be done; but the question does
not lie between you and me, but between me and Alured. It is, as I
said, a peerage question--and will be decided by the peers.
Incidentally, that enquiry will prove what is your position and rank,
as well as what may or may not be ours. Any further points depend upon
my father's will, and that will be in the hands of Mr. Eagles. I think
you can see that it would be impossible, as well as unfeeling, to take
any steps until after the funeral."

Whatever Hester Lea was, she was a high-spirited being, standing there,
a solitary woman, a stranger, with all of us four, and one whole
household, as it must have seemed, against her. I was outraged and
shocked at her defiance at the time, but when, some time after, I
re-read King John, I saw that there was something of Constance in her.

"That may be," she answered, "but when my child's interests are at
stake, I cannot haggle over conventionalities and proprieties. I am
the Earl of Trevorsham's only legitimate daughter, and I claim my right
to remain in his house, and to take charge of my infant brother."

A sign from Fulk stopped me, as I was going to scream at this.

"Remember," he said, "your identity has yet to be proved."

"Your brother there must needs witness. He has done so."

"What do you witness to, Bertram?" asked Fulk.

"I do not know; I cannot understand,