"

"That will suffice," replied Lady Lake, after a moment's reflection.

"And when I have done it, I shall be free to go?" he asked.

"You shall be free to go," she replied.

There were writing materials on an adjoining table, and, without
another word, Luke Hatton sat down, and with great expedition drew up a
statement which he signed, and handed to Lady Lake; asking if that was
what she required?

A smile lighted up her ghastly features as she perused it.

"It will do," she said. "And now answer me one question, and you are
free. Will this cordial have the same effect on my daughter as on me?"

"Precisely the same. It will cure her. But you must proceed more
cautiously. Were she to take the quantity you have taken, it would kill
her. Am I now at liberty to depart?"

"You are," replied Lady Lake.

So saying, she struck the bell, and immediately afterwards the door was
opened; not, however, by the attendants, but by Sir Thomas Lake.

As the Secretary of State perceived that the apothecary avoided him, and
would have passed forth quickly, he sternly and authoritatively
commanded him to stay, exclaiming, "You stir not hence, till you have
accounted to me for my daughter, who, I understand, is dying from your
pernicious treatment. What ho, there! Keep strict watch without; and
suffer not this man to pass forth!"

CHAPTER III.

Showing that "our pleasant vices are made the whips to scourge us."

We must now request the reader to visit the noble mansion in the Strand,
erected by Thomas Cecil, then Earl of Exeter, and bearing-his name; in a
chamber of which Lord Roos and the Countess of Exeter will be found
alone together--alone for the last time.

Very different was the deportment of the guilty pair towards each other
from what it used to be. The glances they exchanged were no longer those
of passionate love, but of undissembled hatred. Bitter reproaches had
been uttered on one side, angry menaces on the other. Ever since the
fatal order had been wrested from the Countess, her peace of mind had
been entirely destroyed, and she had become a prey to all the horrors of
remorse. Perceiving the change in her sentiments towards him, Lord Roos
strove, by the arts which had hitherto proved so successful, to win back
the place he had lost in her affections; but failing in doing so, and
irritated by her reproaches, and still more by her coldness, he gave
vent to his displeasure in terms that speedily produced a