ily by a false
marriage, and, when next you met her, conspired with her to bring the
wealth of that family within her grasp. You again became her guilty
partner, and plotted to take the life of the heir to a noble English
title and great estates."

He was referring now to McKay, but Ledantec, misled by a guilty
conscience, was thinking of Lord Lydstone, and his mysteriously sudden
death.

"That was her doing!" he cried remorsefully. "In removing Lord
Lydstone--"

The judge caught quickly at the new name.

"You removed, or, more plainly, you murdered Lord Lydstone at the
instigation of your accomplice--is that so?"

Ledantec would not confess to this, but the judge felt certain that he
had come upon the track of another dreadful crime.

"There is enough against you," he went on slowly, "to convict you a
dozen times over, enough to send you to the guillotine. Your only hope
will be to make a clean breast of everything. By helping us to convict
your accomplice you may save your forfeited life."

"But I shall be sent to the galleys; to Toulon or Brest. Life as a
French galley-slave is worse than death."

"You will not think so when the alternative is put before you," said
the judge, dryly; "and my advice to you is to make a full
confession."

Ledantec shook his head, but it was with far less assurance than he
had shown at the beginning of his examination. It was clear that he
saw himself fast in the toils; that the law held him tight in its
clutch; that unqualified submission was the only course to pursue.

He had spoken fully and unreservedly, confessing freely to every
guilty deed in his long career of wickedness, possessing the judge
with every detail of his own and his accomplice's crimes, when that
accomplice was brought up for interrogation in her turn.

She was ghastly pale: the rough ordeal of imprisonment had robbed her
dress and demeanour of all its coquetry; but she faced the magistrate
with self-possessed, insolent effrontery, and met his stern look with
cold, unflinching eyes.

"Why am I brought here?" she began, fiercely. "How dare you detain me?
You and your masters shall answer for this ill-usage. I am an English
lady, belonging to one of the proudest families in the country. The
British Embassy, the British nation, will call you to the strictest
account."

"Ta! ta! ta!" said the judge, with a gesture of the hand essentially
French; "I think you are slightly mistaken; you are no more Englis