Armytage thanked the sheriff, and expressed her wish to remain; but
Hilda did not speak. She had sat like a statue with her hands clasped
during the examination of the witnesses, once only casting a look of
reproach at the marquis, when he confessed that he had instigated Tacon
to carry off her son. Still she sat in the same position, lost in
thought, and utterly regardless of everything around.

"Sir Marcus Wardhill," said the sheriff, "as you well know, the heir to
these estates was Bertram Brindister. He was first in succession before
your wife, but unaccountably disappeared, and was supposed to have been
washed away by the sea. Two witnesses have now appeared, who can prove
that he was designedly carried off by a noted smuggler and outlaw,
Halled Yell by name, and by themselves. They are both present. All
three men and the child were rescued from a wreck by Captain Andrew
Scarsdale, who brought up the boy under the name of Rolf Morton. You
knew his father. There stands the present Bertram Brindister, the real
Lord of Lunnasting; is he not like his father?"

Sir Marcus looked up furtively at Rolf Morton, who stood with a calm
countenance, expressive of more pain than triumph, directly in front of
him.

"Yes, yes, he is very like," he answered, and then conquering any fear
he might have felt, he added--"But gentlemen, assertions are not proofs.
This latter tale is too clumsy an imitation of the first we have just
heard not to make a man of sense discredit it. Let us hear what the men
have to say."

On this the two old men, Doull and Eagleshay, stepped forward and
described their having carried off a child from Whalsey at the very time
the boy, Bertram Brindister, was missed, and all the events which
followed, but they could neither of them tell the exact date of the
occurrence.

"I thought so," said Sir Marcus, calmly. "The man I see before me may
be Bertram Brindister, but it cannot be proved; nor can, as far as I can
see, the instigator of the crime be discovered, if, as I say, there is
truth in the story, which I am inclined to doubt. An important link is
missing, and your case, gentlemen, falls to the ground."

"But the link is found, and truth is triumphant. `The prince will hae
his ain again! The prince will hae his ain again!'" exclaimed Lawrence
Brindister, starting up and flourishing two papers in his hands, while
he skipped about the room, in doubt to whom he should deliver them.
"This i