Vaudemont's alarm seized, and the
reflection of a moment construed: the carriage; Lilburne seen lurking in
the neighbourhood the previous day; the former attempt;--all flashed on
him with an intolerable glare. While Sarah was yet speaking, he rushed
from the house, he flew to Lord Lilburne's in Park Lane; he composed his
manner, he inquired calmly. His lordship had slept from home; he was,
they believed, at Fernside: Fernside! H---- was on the direct way to
that villa. Scarcely ten minutes had elapsed since he heard the story
ere he was on the road, with such speed as the promise of a guinea a
mile could extract from the spurs of a young post-boy applied to the
flanks of London post-horses.

CHAPTER XV.

"Ex humili magna ad fastigia rerum
Extollit."--JUVENAL.

[Fortune raises men from low estate to the very
summit of prosperity.]

When Harriet had quitted Fanny, the waiting-woman, craftily wishing to
lure her into Lilburne's presence, had told her that the room below
was empty; and the captive's mind naturally and instantly seized on the
thought of escape. After a brief breathing pause, she crept noiselessly
down the stairs, and gently opened the door; and at the very instant she
did so, Robert Beaufort entered from the other door; she drew back in
terror, when, what was her astonishment in hearing a name uttered that
spell-bound her--the last name she could have expected to hear; for
Lilburne, the instant he saw Beaufort, pale, haggard, agitated, rush
into the room, and bang the door after him, could only suppose that
something of extraordinary moment had occurred with regard to the
dreaded guest, and cried:

"You come about Vaudemont! Something has happened about Vaudemont! about
Philip! What is it? Calm yourself."

Fanny, as the name was thus abruptly uttered, actually thrust her
face through the door; but she again drew back, and, all her senses
preternaturally quickened at that name, while she held the door almost
closed, listened with her whole soul in her ears.

The faces of both the men were turned from her, and her partial entry
had not been perceived.

"Yes," said Robert Beaufort, leaning his weight, as if ready to sink to
the ground, upon Lilburne's shoulder, "Yes; Vaudemont, or Philip, for
they are one,--yes, it is about that man I have come to consult you.
Arthur has arrived."

"Well?"

"And Arthur has seen the wretch who visited us, and the rascal's m