Duke of Hereward, who, after all, is my husband, I thank
Heaven--not the noble Duke of Hereward, but his most ignoble brother,
his counterpart in person and in name, has married that terrible Scotch
woman, and mixed himself up in murder and robbery. Oh, mother! you should
have told me before!"

"My daughter be patient! Only this week have I been able to fit in all
the links in the chain of evidence to make the story complete. Your
mention of the Duke of Hereward as your false husband, my memory of the
Duke of Hereward as the wronged husband who had slain my betrothed in a
duel, all set me to thinking deeply, very deeply thinking. I did not
express my thoughts unnecessarily. Silence is, with our order, a
duty--the handmaid of devotion; but I set secret inquiries on foot,
through agencies that our orders possess for finding out facts, and means
that we can use, superior to those of the most accomplished detectives
living. Through such agencies, and by such means, I learned not only
external facts--which are often lies, paradoxical as that may seem--but I
learned, also, the internal truths without which no history can be really
known, no subject really understood."

"But oh! you should not have kept silence. You should not have left me to
misjudge my noble husband a day longer than necessary!" burst forth
Salome.

"Calm yourself, daughter, and listen to me. I have kept nothing from you
a day longer than necessary. The facts that exonerate the Duke of
Hereward came to me last of all. Hear me. From Father Garbennetti, the
new cure of San Vito, I learned the truth of that miscalled elopement of
the late Duchess of Hereward. I learned that--in the words of your own
charming poet--

'My rival fair
A saint in heaven should be.'

For a most innocent and most deeply wronged and long-suffering martyr on
earth she had been. From him I also learned the existence of her boy, and
the adoption of the boy, after the mother's death, by the Duke of
Hereward. That was all I could learn from the Italian priest, who had
lost sight of the lad after the mother's death. Next I pushed inquiries
through our agents in England, and through the investigations of Father
Fairfield, the eloquent English oratorian, I learned the truth of John
Scott's life in England and Scotland, as I have given it to you. I
received Father Fairfield's letter only this day; only this day I have
learned, Salome, that you are really the Duchess of Hereward; th