CHAPTER XLVII.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 292, 22 August 1888, Page 6

CHAPTER XLVII.

JUDITH TAKES A BOLT) STKI\ After her marriage at the White Hart Inn> Judith, accompanied by hor husband, took rail for Strathspey Station, in Northumberland. For one reason, she thought that it might be soothing to Hendrick's mind to take him back to the familiar scenes of his boyhood ; far another, she felt dreadfully anxious in regard to Lady Marguerite, and could not content herself to remain away from her. ' I promised my poor, dear lady to keep my eye on her,' she said to Bend rick ; •and I must, keep my word ; the poor, motherless young thing will need me, 100, for as sure as you and I are man and wife, there's trouble ahead for her." So they took rail for Northumberland, arriving at Strathspey Station in the wane of a summer afternoon. Judith went straight to the King's Arms, a public-house just below the Towers, and leaving Hendrick there, she made bor way up to the earl's castle. The earl himself was the first person upon whom her eyes rested. He was pacing up and down beneath the oaks, at the lower end of the park, his face .=o white and sad that the tears rose to Judith's eyes as she looked at him. A swift and sudden thought flashed through her mind as she stood irresolute in the glow of the afternoon sunlight She put her hand to her head and tor% xway the flaxen locks she had put on, leaping her own brown braids exposed. ' I'll not play Janet Burns a day longer,' she said ; ' I'll be my own true self or no one. 5 She advanced with a swift, ringing step, startling the brown deer from their covert, ' and attracting the earl's attention. ' I beg your pardon, my lord,' she said, pausing in froat of him ; ' but have you forgotten Judith Ford ?' The earl looked up, stared blankly a moment, and then cried out : ' Why, Judith, can it be you ? Where have you kept yourself in all these years, my girl ?' * It is Judith Ford, my lord,' she replied, ' and I have been in a great many places in the last ten years— l was married in Lancashire yesterday !' ' Married ! Why, I thought Hendrick was lost at sea !' replied the earl. 'So you've solaced yourself with a new lover ?' ' No, sir, I should nevei have married if I had not found Hendrick. He was not lost — he was saved ; I found him in a madhouse, while I was in search of mv poor lady !' The earl flushed, and looked up inquiringly. 'Your lady, Judith?' 'My lady, Lord Strathspey, aud your late countess.' Her \oice rang like a bell, and her bteadfast brown eyes met his gaze unfalteringly. 'I have been searching for her,' she went on, steadily, ' ever since that night, fourteen years ago, when she was caught up and hurried away from Aukland Oaks. My lord, do you know that your poor wife was as "*ane as you or I when they carried her off and shut her up in a mad-house V' The earl grew deathly white aud gasped once or twice for breath. ' Why have you come to me with this?' he demanded ; ' how does it concern me whether she was sane or not, or what they did with her ?' Judith faced him unflinchingly. ' How does it concern you, my lord ? She wa-» your wife — your true and faithful w ife. ' ' She was not ; she was false !' he thundered. ' Lord Strathspey,' Judith went on, calming and convincing him by the power of her quiet voice and steady eye, * you are mistaken — your wife was true; she never wronged you in thought, much less in deed ; and now that she is dead ' ' Dead !' he gasped ; 'is she dead ?' 'She's dead,' replied Judith, solemnly. ' They stole her 'away ; Sir Marshall Neville and the doctors came upon her at the midnight hour, and caught her up like a guilty criminal, and carried heroiito a desolate old place called Miiford Orange, away down upon the Lancashire coast ; and she remained there for year.-;, shut up with raving maniacs — a terrible life, my lord, for a fair and delicate woman like Lady Marguerite Strathspey.' The eaii stood .silent — motionless as a statue, his face as while and rigid as the face of a dead man . 'Go on !' he commanded, in a hoarse voice ; ' but how do you know this ?' 'I know it, my lord,' continued Judith, ' because I have spent fourteen years in solving the mystery — I have travelled over England a dozen cime3. I made up my mind to find out, and I did. From Miiford Grange the Countess of Strathspey was transferred to the insane asylum on Lancaster Moor, and there again for years she was a prisoner, shut up in a dreary cell.' ' I have been there, my lord,' she continued, carried away by her emotions. 'It was there I found poor Hendrick and I saw the very cell in which the counteas was kept — a j|little dusky box, with one dingy window, and a straw pallet for her bed. But the keepers told me sho never murmured ; she was always patient, and kind, and gentle. But she said she had a mission to accomnlish before she died, and she should try to make her escape. ' And she did try ; she got an old file, and for months and months she worked at the lock of her door — just think of it, my lord,' cried Judith, with tears streaming down her cheeks, ' just think of her little tender hand, and she working and filing at her lock, through the lonely midnight hours, while you and Lady Neville were in your grand chambers, with wax lights, and flowers, and music, all about you !' ' Stop !' gasped the earl, putting up his hands as if to shut out the sight ; ( I cannot hear it.' 1 But you must hear it, my lord,' continued the inspired girl ; ' she could bear to suffer it, and you shall hear it, and do her memory justice. She worked with her old file, till at last the lock yielded, and she made her escape. ' But the river below the asylum was very high from recent rains, and in attempting to cross the broken bridge she was drowned. They found her shawl the next morning just below the bridge, and a week after, her body drifted ashore lower down. And she was buried by stranger hands. I saw her grave, my lord ; buried in the common Potter's Field that lies at the back of the asylum. ' And standing by that grave, Lord Strathspey,' she went on, ' I vowed that I would seek you, and tell you her story, and I have kept my vow. You know now what she suffered ; and suffered innocently, for she was a sane woman, and as true a wife as there is in England. Her mother's heart

was right, for I tell you, Lord Strathspey, that as sure as you and I stand hero this hour, under this blue sky, that littlo boy down in the Tyrol Valloy was your son, yoxir 01071 son : and the one who boars your name, and is to be your hoir, is an impostor.' She paused, bufc the earl uttered no word in answer. Ho stood facing the summer sunset, his hands locked behind him, as white, and rigid, and icy as if he had been suddenly turned into stone. Judith observed him narrowly, and then went on : 1 1 beg your pardon, my lord ; and it hurts me dreadfully to pain you so, but my poor lndy's name must bo cleared. She was true to you, my lord, as you would readily have discovered, if you had only been patient and looked into the matter. Her only object was to reclaim her child, and icstovo him to his rights. Sho was true to you, and she loved you to the last. When you were on the point of a duel with Colonel Verney, it was her work his refusing to right at the last moment. Sho travelled all the way back from Aukland Oaks, and went down on her knees before him, and never left him till ho had promised not to fight. And the very last day I ever paw her, as we wore driving home from London, after she had seen her childron in Lady Neville's grounds, and would not speak to them because your lordship had forbidden it ; that vory afternoon she said to me • ' ' Whenever you see my dear husband asjain, Judith, toll him that I freely forgive him, and love him as fondly as ever. He will know how true T was to him when I am gone.' ' Still he stood there, cold, silent, motionless, his ghastly lace turned toward tho purple, sunset hills. Judith watched with a feeling of awe, and began to fear that she had gone too far. She laid her hand upon his arm. 'My lord,' she said, ' had you not better return to the Towers?' The touch of her hand roused him. He shook it oft' fiercely. ' What does it matter where I go now ?' he burst out. ' Girl, why didn't you murder me at once ? It would have been more merciful. If what you've told me is true, there's not a lost soul so utterly accursed as I am.' And with these words, he turned and strode away. Judith looked after him with a deep sigh. ' Poor man,' she murmured, ' how I do pity him, but I had to clear my lady's slandered name !' She stood a moment irresolute, debating within herself whether she should go to the Towers, and seek an interview with Lady Marguerite, or return to Hendrick at the King's Arms. All of a sudden, while she stood thus, something grasped her shoulder, with a grip so fierce and strong that the girl barely repressed a cry of pain. Turning quickly, she stood face to face with the young lord. He wore his shooting suit, and had a rifls across his shoulders. Judith knew him in an instant, and met the baleful glare of his tigerish eyes with her serene and steady gaze. ' Well, Lord Angus,' she asked, quietly, ' what is it V 'It is this !' he pautcd, his voice deep and hoarse with suppressed fury. ' I have heard every word of the idle tale you\e been telling. Do you dare to say lam not the Earl of Strathspey's son ?' ' I dare to say it, my lord,' was her quiet answer, ' because it is true ! You are not the earl's son !' His grip tightened on her shoulder, and his eyes glared more fiercely. | Liar !' he hissed. ' Here, swear to mo this moment, swear before Heaven never to utter those words again, or by my soul I'll put this bullet through your heart !' He removed his hand from her shoulder, and raised his rifle. ' Tbere's not a soul in sight of us,' he went on, 'and just below there is a deep gully —'tis the easiest thing in the world for me to pop you clown like a pheasant and draw 1 your carcase there, and if you refuse I'll do it • Will you swear? I'll not have my prospects ruined by a prating fool like you !' His face was something terrible to look upon, with that murderous glare in his eves. He brought the lifie to a sure aim, and stood with his finger on the trigger. But some power in the gill's foul, stronger than hei meie woman's strength, made her fearless. She faced him unflinchingly, her steady eyes ne\er wavering for an Instant. 'No, young man,' she answered, in a ringing voice, 'I will not swear — you are not Lord Strath->pty\ sou P ' Die then '' And simultaneous with the fiendish woicls there came a blinding Hash and a shai p report ; but as the rillc went off, a quick blow struck it upward, and the deadly bullet, aimed at Judith's heart, went crackling through the oak boughs overhead. ' Murderer !' cried the earl, facing his astonished son ; ' do you think I could own sucli a dastard as you arc ?' The >oung man slowly whitened, till his very lips were colon rleMb. ' Own me or not as you will,' he muttered, as he picked up hia rifle ; ' but as sure as I have life I'll be your heir, and that sooner than you think for.' 'Silence !' stormed the carl ; ' don't you threaten me. I'll hand you over to the authorities to be tried for your crime. Your life is in my hands. ' ' And yours in mine,' replied Lord Angus, as he strode away. The earl stood for a moment like one stunned ; at last he turned to Judith : 'You are right, my girl,' he said, his voice thrilling in unutterable pathos, 'and my poor wife was light — he n not my son /'