CHAPTER LXIII THE REVELATION.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 299, 15 September 1888, Page 3

CHAPTER LXIII THE REVELATION.

Tiih Earl of Strathspey tound himself in utter dnrkneps, bruised and stunned by his fall, and badly hurt about his head. He never knew how long he had lain unconscious after thab Midden descent ; life and reason returned to him in a dim* uncertain way, and he lay in the mould and gloom of chc dark dungeon, weak, helpless, gasping; for breath. AW hi? life seemed to bo bJobled out at the moment, only one hideous remembrance remaining — his son'o face - that mocking, murdorous faco Chat glared on him as he sank" down into the black abyss, and the dreadful words rang still in his oars. : ' Who will be Earl ot'Stmfchsptsy now, my lord ?'

Slowly and painfully his faculties began to re-assert themselves. J&c remembered all —the events oi the past day, the letter he had received, and understood that he had been lured into a trap, and by the boy he had reared and loved as his own son. He intended to murder him that the earldom miffht be his. The truth stabbed the earl's heart like a cruel knife, for despite all the boy's; natural depravity and meanness, ho had loved him. For his sake he had wronged his wife and made her an outcast from his home and heart ; for thi.s boy's .sake ; and now, after all, he had turned serpent-like and stung him to death. ( Only one human passion clung to him as the endless hours and da,).s diagged by, and that was his pnde. Jt outlived every other emotion, his pride in the spotless name he boie. He grieved to leave it in hands so unworthy his old name and honoured title to infamy and disgrace. Jf he might have lived to right that one wrong, to let the world know that the man who bore his name was not his son, then death would have been welcome. But his doom was scaled, and he Mould be succeeded by a mm derer. ' 'All, Marguerite, my poor wionged darling,' he murmured, ' thou art tearfully avenged. It I had listened to thee, been guided by thy holy maternal instinct, I should never have come to this.' Day and night were indistinguishable in that black, loathsome vault, but a cycle seemed to have gone by, and Ihe unhappy earl, faint, and weak, and half-delirious with the pangs of starvation, began to fancy that life had ended for him, and he had entered upon »ome endless existence of luture punishment, when all at once, as he lay panting bnd prostrate, a door creaked upon its hinges, and a ray of blinding light flashed upon his aching eye«. He struggled to a sitting posture and turned toward it, but it wa^ some time before his eyes, so long accustomed Co darkness could distinguish one object from another. When the partial blindness wore oil lie saw the figure of a woman, with a lamp held alott in her hand She was robed in garments that jrlitteied in the dim light ; a vehet robe all starred with jewels, laces shading her white bosom and lounded aim-, and diamond.** everywhere -on her dainty slippers, i 1 her bosom, and crowning her black braids in a. royal tiara. The eail <?a/ed upon thi<* glittering vision, believing tor the moment that she was merely the hallucination of a dream ; but at. she advanced towaid him, he cried out in utter ama/c : 'Can it be Lady Drummond V She advanced and faced him ; her dazzling beauty seeming to irradiate his gloomy prison. Never before, perhaps, had her singular charms appeared to such advantage. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes outshone her jewels, her bearing was that oi a born queen. ' Yes," she replied, advancing, and looking down upon the peer with wicked exultation, ' it is Lady Diummond !' A thrill of hope shot through the earl's heait. ' And you have come to save me from this horrible pit of death ?' he siid. Lady Drummond laughed u clear, silvery, scornful laugh, that tilled the black vaults with ringing echoes. 'To free you?' she jcpeated. 'Why, no, my lord earl, it is to mi/ hand that you owe your imprisonment ! You did not even dieam oi such a possibility, did you *' 'Tis true, nevertheless it is to me that you owe this imprisonment, and the death that is already creeping upon you." Lord Strathspey struggled to gain his feet, his thin face growing white with dismay. His beautiful visitor laughed again, as if the ->iyht of his suffering and amazement allot ded her supreme satisfaction. 'Don't use, my loid, she continued; 'don't, J be^r, 1 ha\e a great deal to say to you, and T perceive you nre too weak to stand. I 'ray, make yourself comfortable and hear me." ' For a score of year?« and over, 1 hay c been working lor this hour ; sutler me to enjoy it, now thai it has come ' The hour of my sweet levengc, m\ triumph !' ' For Heaven's sake, Lady Diummond, what- can you mean ?' cried Lord Strathspey. ' Have patience, and you shall hear. Do you temember that morning, over a score of years ago, thaL morning, up at old Cavendish Manor, rrhen you gave me my pearl - ring, my woman's lovepiit, and told me that we must forget our youthful folly V When you lett me, after you had spoken w ords of love to me, and v»ent down to Aukland Oaks and matried the one woman, in all the world, that [ hated, my cousin Lady Mait>uente, the blue-eyed peail of Kent; V Of course your lordship remembers it all. Well, that hour, when we uartcd, I swore a bitter oath that I would havo my icven«e ; and all my life long 1 have been working loi it, and now it hat, come !' '(Jreat HTeavon, Lady Drummond !' I ejaculated the pooi man, overwhelmed with I honor j 'ft surprises you, Karl of Xtrath'-pey," pursued hi.> tormentoi. ' bur it is true, nevertbele-*". E\eiy acti and thought of my life since that hour has tended to one purpose. No one can hate -o intensely , Lord .Strathspey , as a woman who ha- once loved. And 1 loved you once. Hut you cast me oil, and my love was changed into the bitter pall ot hate. ' I have wrought your ruin from beginning to end— you have not hail a sorrow, a disappointment, for which \ou arc not indebted to me. It was through my ayeney that, your babe, your hour-old heir, was •stolen ! — it was also my work that substituted another in its place : for. Lord Strathspey, the boy you received and 1 eared as your^pwn was no child of > ours, as you mighthave known,, had you possessed one atom or'comQion semse.or parental instinct ' He is a ,cohrict\ , Earl oi Strathspey ; his grandmother it* the 'old creature who inhabits this place. Think oi that, my proud earl, the boy who boars your name, who is now, to all intents and purposes, Karl of Strathspey Towers, is a convict's son. A fine end, truly, for the timehonoured race, the haughty, blue-blooded Strathspeys !' The earl groaned a'oud, and pui< up his hands entreatingly, but the beautiful woman, in her velvet and diamonds, only laughed at his agony. I ' Your own child I intended should be put to death," she went on, with calm serenity, ' but by some strange mischance it was left { on the Tyrol heights, and reared by ashep herd. Your countess Avas wiser than you, my lord : she was right— the child was yours. 'But you. my wise and far-sighted peer — you, acting on my viyyt^ion — don't forget that ; 1 *vant you to see how faithfully I have kept my oath — you giew jealous of Colonel 'Gilbert Yerney, and fancied the boy was his. Your wife was true to you, and you made her an outcast— murdered her ; worse than that — shut her up in a mad-house to die a lingering death — your true and tendei wife, because her ' mother instinct forced her to claim her own ! child.' ' Lady Drummond, in the name of mercy, ' ] entreat you to leave mo V cried the earl, ! gaining his ieet, by an ellort, and iccoiling h'om her. ' But she followed him step by flop, hi/r eyes gleaming like li\ ing lire

' Not until I have done, my lord. I have not waited twenty year* for this hour for nothing. It was my work, through by planning, that you were haunted and tormented by that weird prophecy, 'Born to bo hung. 1 A prophecy destined to come true, for your heir, my lord, the la.st Etnl of Wtrath.spey, will stand guilty of the murder of his oiwi fathw .' Ha, ha, ha! — what a triumph mine is ! You did noL think me such a clever woman, did you, my loidV ' 1 did not think you devoid of common human pity, 1 replied the earl. 'Nor was I,' t-lie retorted; 'there was an hour when I relented, and was willing to foiego all I had plotted and laboured for. You remember that hour well ! You were free, and so was 1. You might have redeemed your error, wiped out my" wrong. Earl of B trathsppy, this, hour youmighb have been a t ee man, a happy man, with the most brilliant woman in .England for your countess. I made you the offer. I gave you the chance, and jon lefused me. Look at me now I I loved you '. 1, Cecilia IVnnmiond, whom all men worship, and you dared to scorn my love I And you have your reward. You will die in this place, a slow and lingering death. Your so// — the coucicl\ ,so?/--will reign in jour &tcad, and in ail human probability, I, to complete the measure of my revenge, slml! cause him to ha arrested, and he will be hung foi the murder o) hi> Jalli< r. The Midi'ifihf Prophrcy will be fulfilled — the name of Strathspey will become a bvwoid, a thing of .shame. lam done ! My, rovongo it- fcwect ! Karl ot Strathspey farewell '' She turned, with a mocking bow, and was .sweeping from him, in her dazzling beauty, but he staggered forward, and caught her velvet robe. 'Stop, ' he cried, hoarseh , 'one word, My hon, the boy found in the Tyrol, what became of him ?' ' Ah, 1 had almost forgotten,' she leplied, with a smile. 'L am glad you reminded me —'twill be one drop more. I caused him to be midfhred ; I tore him from the arnus of your countess, and had him mwxbre.d. You need have no hope that he In es, or will by any chance succeed you— Ac ?\ dead-yoiiv onl\ heir i* the ronvici\ so//. Adieu ." The earl reeled back, half fainting from want of food, and watched her with a kind of fascinated horror, as she h ped through the great grated door, closing and locking if after her. The la&t .shimmering ray of light departed, and the black gloom of the grave again .surrounded htm. He &lid dou n to a kneeling posture, and re&led his aching biow against the dank, mouldy wall. ' Oh, Heaven, 'he prayed; from the depths of his agony, 'if ever Thou didsfc help and pity a poor Jost sinner, help and pity me."