e it, but any significant connection it might have I found
myself unable to recall.

"It was heard of, ten or twelve years past, in connection with that of
the late Duke of Borthwicke," he threw in for my assistance, and the
tale of an old-time scandal came back to me at his words.

"She left her husband for him. They went to France together, did they
not?" I asked.

"It was so stated at the time," Pitcairn answered.

"And she knows something of the duke's death?"

"Knew," Pitcairn corrected. "She died at noon to-day. It is her
confession that I have in this paper, John. It was she herself who shot
the duke, and the interwovenness of affairs is marked in this. She was
an early love of Father Michel's, before he entered the priesthood, and
came to him for work after her children died."

"Poor woman," said I, "she was half crazed, and, God forgive me for
saying so, had many excuses for her act."

"Father Michel sent for me at ten. McMurtrie was there, and she told us
the tale, after signing the paper, which I bring to you to use as you
think best. You will be glad to have Carmichael see it, perhaps."

"Hugh," said I, for a shadow had lain between us ever since the trial,
despite his devotion to Nancy, "I didn't think ye acted well by me at
the time of the trial."

I got no further in this speech, for upon the instant he flew into a
sudden heat, which made any temper, Sandy's or mine, or both of them
put together, seem but a child's displeasure beside it.

"Acted well to ye!" he cried. "Acted well to ye! Do you know what I
did for you at that time, Jock Stair, or rather for that bit lassie
of yours, who has so wound herself about my heart that her illness
has made me a broken man? I didn't give over the case when ye asked
me, for I believed Danvers Carmichael a guilty man; but I meant to be
as lenient to him as consistent with exact duty. Ye'll learn perhaps
that in law, a friend prosecuting is better than a friend defending!
Do you think I did not know what was done at that trial? Oh! not at
the first, for she tricked and befooled me to the clear end of the
prosecution; but when the letter was read I knew it had been changed,
and did for that bit of a girl what the rest of the world might have
tried to get me to do in vain. I was afraid for her--for her! do you
understand?--for, on my soul, I thought him guilty in the way she
did, a sudden duel perhaps, for the young man has a look of honesty
not compatible wi