conscience long dead to all good, and made it impossible to her to carry out this last wicked commission without an attempt to save the creature whom she had learnt to reverence as a saint. Most likely her scruples had been suspected by her mistress, for there had been an endeavour to put it out of her power to give any warning to the victim. Yet after all, the waiting-maid had been too adroit for the lady, or, as she fully owned, Aurelia's firm trust had not been baulked, and deliverance from the lions had come.
CHAPTER XXXV. THE RETURN.
And now the glorious artist, ere he yet
Had reached the Lemnian Isle, limping, returned;
With aching heart he sought his home.
How were they to get the slumbering maiden home? That was the next question. Loveday advised carrying her direct to her old prison, where she would wake without alarm; but Sir Amyas shuddered at the notion, and Betty said she
The watermen, who were enthusiastic in the cause, which they understood as that of one young sweetheart rescued by the other, declared that they would carry the sweet lady between them on the cushions of their boat, laid on stretchers; and as they knew of a land-place near the
The boat from Woolwich had shot London Bridge immediately after them, and stopped at the stairs nearest that where they landed; and just as Sir Amyas, with an exclamation of annoyance at his unserviceable arm, had resigned Aurelia to be lifted on to her temporary litter, a hand was laid on his shoulder, a voice said 'Amyas, what means this?' and he found himself face to face with a small, keen-visaged, pale man, with thick grizzled brows overhanging searching dark grey eyes, shaded by a great Spanish hat.
'Sir! oh sir, is it you?' he cried, breathlessly; 'now all will be well!'
'I am very glad you think so, Amyas,' was the grave answer; 'for all this has a strange appearance.'
'It is my dearest wife, sir, my wife, whom I have just recovered after -Oh, say, sir, if you think all is well with her, and it is only a harmless sleeping potion. Sister-Betty-this is my good father, Mr. Wayland. He is as good as a physician. Let him see my sweetest life.'
Mr. Wayland bent over the slumbering figure still in the bottom of the boat, heard what could be told of the draught by Loveday, whom he recognized as his wife's attendant, and feeling Aurelia's pulse, said, 'I should not think there was need for fear. To the outward eye she is a model of sleeping innocence.' 'Well you may say so,' and 'She is indeed,' broke from the baronet and the waiting-maid at the same instant; but Mr. Wayland heeded them little as he impatiently asked, 'Where and how is your mother, Amyas?'
'In health sir, at home, I suppose,' said Sir Amyas; 'but oh, sir, hear me, before you see her.'
'I must, if you walk with me,' said Mr. Wayland, turning for a moment to bid his servant reward and dismiss the boat's crew, and see to the transport of his luggage; and in the meantime Aurelia was lifted by her bearers.
Sir Amyas again uttered a rejoicing, 'We feared you were in the hands of the pirates, sir.'
'So I was; but the governor of Gibraltar obtained my release, and was good enough to send me home direct in a vessel on the king's service,' said Mr. Wayland, taking the arm his stepson offered to assist his lameness. 'Now for your explanation, Amyas; only let me hear first that my babes are well.'
'Yes, sir, all well. You had my letter?'
'Telling of that strange disguised wedding? I had, the very day I was captured.'
By the time they had come to the place where their ways parted, Mr. Wayland had heard enough to be so perplexed and distressed that he knew not that he had been drawn out of the way to Hanover Square, till at the entrance of the
At that instant the sound brought Major Delavie hurrying from his sitting-room at his best speed. There was a look of horror on his face as he saw his daughter's senseless condition, but Betty sprang to his side to prevent his wakening her, and Aurelia was safely carried up stairs and laid upon her sister's bed, still sleeping, while Betty and Loveday unloosed her clothes. Her bearers were sent for refreshment to the bar, and the gentlemen stood looking on one another in the sitting-room, Mr. Wayland utterly shocked, incredulous of the little he did understand, and yet unable to go home until he should hear more; and the Major hardly less horrified, in the midst of his relief. 'But where's Belamour!' he cried, 'Your uncle, I mean.'
'Where?' said Sir Amyas. 'They said he was gone out.'
'So they told me! And see here!'
Major Delavie produced Lady Belamour's note.
'A blind!' cried Sir Amyas, turning away under a strange stroke of pain and sham. 'Oh! mother, mother!' and he dashed out of the room.
Poor Mr. Wayland sat down as one who could stand no longer. 'Of what do they suspect her?' he said hoarsely.
'Sir,' said the good Major, 'I grieve sincerely for and with you. Opposition to this match with my poor child seems to have transported my poor cousin to strange and frantic lengths, but you may trust me to shield and guard her from exposure as far as may be.'
Her husband only answered by a groan, and wrung Major Delavie's hand, but their words were interrupted by Sir Amyas's return. He had been to his uncle's chamber, and had found on the table a note addressed to the Major. Within was a inclosure directed to A. Belamour, Esq.
'If you have found the way to the poor captive, for pity's sake
come to her rescue. Be in the court with your faithful black
by ten o'clock, and you may yet save on who loves and looks to
you.'
On the outer sheet was written-
'I distrust this handwriting, and suspect a ruse. In case I do
not return, send for Hargrave, Sandys, Godfrey, as witnesses to
my sanity, and storm the fair one's fortress in person. A. B.'
'It is not my Aurelia's writing,' said the Major. 'Bravest of friends, what has he not dared on her account!'
'This is too much!' cried Mr. Wayland, striving in horror against his convictions. 'I cannot hear my beloved wife loaded with monstrous suspicions in her absence!'
'I am sorry to say this is no new threat ever since poor Belamour has crossed her path,' said the Major.
'What have you done, sir!' asked Sir Amyas.
'I fear I have but wasted time,' said the Major. 'I have been to Hanover Square, and getting no admittance there, I came back in the hope you might be on the track with Betty-as, thank God, you were! The first thing to be done now is to find what she has done with Belamour,' he added, rising up.
'That must fall to my share,' said Mr. Wayland, pale and resolute. 'Come with me, Amyas, your young limbs will easily return before the effect of the narcotic has passed, and I need fuller explanation.'
Stillness than came on the Delavie party. The Major went up stairs, and sat by Aurelia's bed gazing with eyes dazzled with tears at the child he had so longed to see, and whom he found again in this strange trance. A doctor came, and quite confirmed Mr. Wayland's opinion, that the drug would not prove deleterious, provided the sleep was not disturbed, and Betty continued her watch, after hearing what her father knew of Mr. Belamour. She was greatly struck with the self- devotion that had gone with open eyes into so dreadful a snare as a madhouse of those days rather than miss the least chance of saving Aurelia.
'If we go by perils dared, the uncle is the true knight-errant,' said she to her father. 'I wonder which our child truly loves the best!'
'Betty!' said her father, scandalised.
'Ay, I know, Sir Amyas is a charming boy, but what a boy he is! And she has barely spoken with him or seen him, whereas Mr. Belamour has been kind to her for a whole twelvemonth. I know what I should do if I were in her
