E SCENT 147
XXIII.--DARK SUSPICIONS 153
XXIV.--THE ESCAPE 159
XXV.--THE LAST OF DE LA ZOUCH 166
XXVI.--A DISGUISED LOVER 174
XXVII.--A NARROW ESCAPE 180
XXVIII.--"NOT YET" 188
XXIX.--THE ANGELS OF LIFE AND DEATH 197
XXX.--STOLEN SWEETS 206
XXXI.--THE TOKEN 215
XXXII.--PLAIN JOHN MANNERS WINS HIS
BRIDE 222
XXXIII.--PEACE AT LAST 229

THE HEIRESS OF HADDON.

CHAPTER I.

AT FIRST SIGHT.

There is a spirit brooding o'er these walls
That tells the record of a bygone day,
When 'mid the splendour of these courtly halls,
A pageant shone, whose gorgeous array
Like pleasure's dream has passed away.

ANON.

Where both deliberate the love is slight;
Who ever loved that love not at first sight?

MARLOWE.

Amid the hills of Derbyshire which cluster around the Peak there
rises, in a lovely dale slyly peeping out from behind the surrounding
trees, the fine old pile of Haddon Hall.

Perhaps the old shire of Derby, with its many rich examples, can
present to view nothing equal in historic and legendary interest to
this old mansion. Its turrets and towers, its windows and its
walls, its capacious kitchens, and its fine halls and banqueting
rooms--unspoiled by the hands of the "restorer"--have gained for
it the almost unchallenged position of being the finest baronial
residence which still exists.

There stand the grey old walls whose battlements have proudly bidden
defiance to the storms and blasts of half a thousand winters, and
there still stand the gnarled old trees which have gently swayed to
and fro while many a baron has ruled the Hall, and whose leaves after
growing in superlative beauty, seeming to partake in the grandeur and
pride of the "King of the Peak," have drooped and fallen, after having
made, with their rich autumnal tints, a succession of beautiful living
pictures which have delighted the lords and ladies of Haddon for
almost twenty generations.

When William the Conqueror had invaded England and had succeeded in
seating himself upon his somewhat insecure throne, he began to reward
his followers with liberal grants of the land he had won. Among these
fortunate individuals was one, William Peveril, said to be a son of
the Conqueror, and to him, in