nged tone.

"Kept closely by one who knows their value, for they are the title deeds
not of his right but of his confusion."

"And how can we obtain them?"

"By means more honest than those they were acquired by."

"They are not obvious."

"Two hundred thousand human beings yesterday acknowledged the supremacy
of Gerard," said Hatton. "Suppose they had known that within the walls
of Mowbray Castle were contained the proofs that Walter Gerard was the
lawful possessor of the lands on which they live; I say suppose that had
been the case. Do you think they would have contented themselves with
singing psalms? What would have become of moral power then? They would
have taken Mowbray Castle by storm; they would have sacked and gutted
it; they would have appointed a chosen band to rifle the round tower;
they would have taken care that every document in it, especially an iron
chest painted blue and blazoned with the shield of Valence, should have
been delivered to you, to me, to any one that Gerard appointed for the
office. And what could be the remedy of the Earl de Mowbray? He could
scarcely bring an action against the hundred for the destruction of the
castle, which we would prove was not his own. And the most he could
do would be to transport some poor wretches who had got drunk in his
plundered cellars and then set fire to his golden saloons."

"You amaze me," said Morley, looking with an astonished expression on
the person who had just delivered himself of these suggestive details
with the same coolness and arid accuracy that he would have entered into
the details of a pedigree.

"'Tis a practical view of the case," remarked Mr Hatton.

Morley paced the chamber disturbed; Hatton remained silent and watched
him with a scrutinizing eye.

"Are you certain of your facts?" at length said Morley abruptly
stopping.

"Quite so; Lord de Mowbray informed me of the circumstances himself
before I left London, and I came down here in consequence."

"You know him?"

"No one better."

"And these documents--some of them I suppose," said Morley with a
cynical look, "were once in your own possession then?"

"Possibly. Would they were now! But it is a great thing to know where
they may be found."

"Then they once were the property of Gerard?"

"Hardly that. They were gained by my own pains, and often paid for with
my own purse. Claimed by no one, I parted with them to a person to whom
they were valuable. It is not merel