"Stop! I will come on board," cried the voice, and then proceeded, as if while climbing the ship's side, "have yon one Sir Osborne Maurice with you?"
"No!" answered Skippenhausen, stoutly.
"Well, we will soon see that," cried the other; "for I have orders to attach him for high treason. Come, bustle! disperse, my boys! You, Wilfred, go forward; I will down here and see who is in the cabin; and if I find him, Master Dutchman, I will slit your ears."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
My conscience will serve me to run from this Jew.
Merchant of Venice.
We will now return to Lady Constance de Grey, whose fate must no longer be left in uncertainty; and taking up the thread of our narrative at the moment Sir Osborne quitted her, on the eventful evening which destroyed all his fond expectations, we will, in our homely way, record the events that followed.
It may be remembered, that at the very instant the knight parted from good Dr. Wilbraham at the door of the young lady's apartment in the palace at Richmond, a letter was put into the clergyman's hands, to be delivered to the heiress of De Grey, for such was the style of the address. No time was lost by Dr. Wilbraham in giving the letter into his lady's hands; and on being opened, it proved to be one of those anonymous epistles which are seldom even worth the trouble of deciphering, being prompted always by some motive which dares not avow itself.
However, as Lady Constance was very little in the habit of receiving letters from any one, and certainly none to which the writer dare not put his name, mere curiosity, if nothing else, would have prompted her to read it through; the more especially as it was written in a fine and clerkly hand, and in a style and manner to be acquired alone by high and courtly education. Although the letter is still extant, we shall not copy it, having already given one specimen of the compositions of that day, and not at all wishing to depreciate the times of our hero and heroine in the estimation of our more cultivated readers. Let it be considered as sufficient, then, that we merely say, the letter professed to be a warning from a friend, and informed the young lady that the most rigorous measures were about to be adopted towards her, in case of her still refusing to comply with Wolsey's command in respect to her marriage with Lord Darby. The writer then hinted that perpetual seclusion in a convent, together with the forfeiture of all her estates, would be the consequence, if she could not contrive to fly immediately; but that, if she could, her person at least would be at liberty, and that a friend would watch over her property; and, as a conclusion, he advised her to leave Richmond by water, as the means which would leave the least trace of her course.
So singularly did this letter anticipate not only her own fears, but also her own plans, that it instantly acquired, in the eyes of Lady Constance, an authenticity which it did not otherwise possess; and placing it in the hands of Dr. Wilbraham, she asked his opinion upon its contents.