-wai--wait until I get my breath! There! that was good! That
villain has all but strangled me to death? Oh, Herbert, I'm so
delighted you've come! How is it that you always drop right down at the
right time and on the right spot?" said Cap, while gasping for breath.

"I will tell you another time! Now I want an explanation."

"Yes, Herbert; I also wish to explain--not only to you but to these
gaping, good people! Let me have a hearing!" said Cap.

"She is mad! absolutely mad!" cried Colonel Le Noir, who was assisting
his son to rise.

"Silence, sir!" thundered Herbert Greyson, advancing toward him with
uplifted and threatening hand.

"Gentlemen! gentlemen! pray remember that you are within the walls of a
church!" said the distressed priest.

"Craven, this is no place for us; let us go and pursue our fugitive
ward," whispered Colonel Le Noir to his son.

"We might as well; for it is clear that all is over here!" replied
Craven. And the two baffled villains turned to leave the place. But
Herbert Greyson, speaking up, said:

"Good people, prevent the escape of those men until we hear what this
young lady has to say! that we may judge whether to let them go or to
take them before a magistrate."

The people flew to the doors and windows and secured them, and then
surrounded the two Le Noirs, who found themselves prisoners.

"Now, Capitola, tell us how it is that you are here!" said Herbert
Greyson.

"Well, that elder man," said Cap, "is the guardian of a young heiress
who was betrothed to a worthy young man, one Doctor Traverse Rocke."

"My friend!" interrupted Herbert.

"Yes, Mr. Greyson, your friend! Their engagement was approved by the
young lady's father, who gave them his dying blessing. Nevertheless, in
the face of all this, this 'guardian' here, appointed by the Orphans'
Court to take charge of the heiress and her fortune, undertakes, for
his own ends, to compel the young lady to break her engagement and
marry his own son! To drive her to this measure, he does not hesitate
to use every species of cruelty. This night he was to have forced her
to this altar! But in the interval, to-day, I chanced to visit her at
the house where she was confined. Being informed by her of her
distressing situation, and having no time to help her in any better
way, I just changed clothes with her. She escaped unsuspected in my
dress. And those two heroes there, mistaking me for her, forced me into
a carriage and dragged me