next morning in company with that obedient tool, her
husband and Jethro Sands, to the office of Squire Hathorne, and got him
to issue a warrant for the arrest of Master Ellis Raymond, on the usual
charge of practicing witchcraft.

CHAPTER XL.

An Interview with Lady Mary.

Master Raymond, having obtained an introduction to the Governor's wife,
Lady Mary, lost no time in endeavoring to "cultivate the amenities of
life," so far as that very influential person was concerned. He had paid
the most deferential court to her on several occasions where he had been
able to meet her socially; and had impressed the Governor's lady very
favorably, as being an unusually handsome, well-bred and highly
cultivated young man. A comely and high-spirited lady of forty, she was
better pleased to be the recipient of the courteous and deferential
attentions of a young Englishman of good connections like Master
Raymond, than even to listen to the wise and weighty counsel of so
learned a man as Master Cotton Mather.

Only in the last minutes of their last meeting however, when handing her
ladyship to her carriage, did Master Raymond feel at liberty to ask her
if he could have a short private interview with her the next morning.
She looked a little surprised, and then said, "Of course, Master
Raymond."

"At what hour will it suit your ladyship?"

"At twelve, precisely, I have an engagement at one;" and the carriage
drove off.

A minute or two before twelve, Master Raymond was at the Governor's
house in Green lane; and was duly admitted, as one expected, and shown
into her ladyship's boudoir.

"Now, come right to the point, Master Raymond; and tell me what I can do
for you," said her ladyship smiling. "If I can help you, I will; if I
cannot, or must not, I shall say so at once--and you must continue to be
just as good a friend to me as ever."

"I promise that to your ladyship," replied the young man earnestly. He
really liked and admired Lady Mary very much.

"Is it love, or money?--young men always want one of these."

"Your ladyship is as quick-witted in this as in everything else."

"Well, which is it?"

"Love."

"Ah--who?"

"Mistress Dulcibel Burton."

"What!--not the girl with the snake-mark?"

Raymond bowed his head very low in answer.

Lady Mary laughed. "She is a witch then, it seems; for she has bewitched
you."

"We were betrothed to each other only a few days before that absurd and
lying charge was mad