o the fastenings; and the
permission was needed, for he could hardly have stood another minute.
The covering contained a letter to Lord Walwyn himself, and a packet
addressed to the Baron de Ribaumont which his trembling fingers could
scarcely succeed in cutting and tearing open.

How shall it be told what the contents of the packet were? Lord Walwyn
reading on with much concern, but little surprise, was nevertheless
startled by the fierce shout with which Berenger broke out:

'A lie! A lie forged in hell!' And then seizing the parchment, was about
to rend it with all the force of passion, when his grandfather, seizing
his hand, said, in his calm, authoritative voice, 'Patience, my poor
son.'

'How, how should I have patience when they send me such poisoned lies as
these of my wife, and she is in the power of the villains? Grandfather,
I must go instantly---'

'Let me know what you have heard,' said Lord Walwyn, holding him feebly
indeed, but with all the impressive power and gravity of his years.

'Falsehoods,' said Berenger, pushing the whole mass of papers over to
him, and then hiding his head between his arms on the table.

Lord Walwyn finished his own letter first. Walsingham wrote with
much kind compassion, but quite decisively. He had no doubt that the
Ribaumont family had acted as one wheel in the great plot that had
destroyed all the heads of Protestant families and swept away among
others, as they had hoped, the only scion of the rival house. The old
Chevalier de Ribaumont had, he said, begun by expressing sorrow for
the mischance that had exposed his brave young cousin to be lost in the
general catastrophe, and he had professed proportionate satisfaction on
hearing of the young man's safety. But the Ambassador believed him to
have been privy to his son's designs; and whether Mdlle. de Nid de Merle
herself had been a willing agent or not, she certainly had remained
in the hands of the family. The decree annulling the marriage had been
published, the lady was in a convent in Anjou, and Narcisse de Ribaumont
had just been permitted to assume the title of Marquis de Nid de Merle,
and was gone into Anjou to espouse her. Sir Francis added a message of
commiseration for the young Baron, but could not help congratulating his
old friend on having his grandson safe and free from these inconvenient
ties.

Berenger's own packet contained, in the first place, a copy of the
cassation of the marriage, on the ground