"Who indeed?" asked Sir Richard, who then entered the room.
"By what power dared the villains do so?—oh, God! had I only stayed an hour longer!"
"The warrant," exclaimed Mr. Lennox, "was couched in the usual form. I fear the worst: I fear she has been taken to London by the King's orders."
"And do you dare insinuate she is an accomplice to a damnable crime? This to my face! where is the warrant?—how did you see it?"
"I have it here, my Lord; it was lying on the table, I took it, thinking it might have been of importance."
"This a warrant!" cried the Earl, in a tone of bitter irony; "what, sir, do you know of warrants who tell me so? You have been duped, Sheriff, gulled—cheated; this is no warrant; a most foul, diabolical imposture! A pretty officer to leave his warrant! Up, all who love me, let us track the demons to their lair!"
"That would be perhaps a difficult matter, my Lord; I never saw the warrant before, credit me," said Sheriff Murray.
"Talk not to me of difficulty; if she is on the face of the globe I will find her; and woe! woe to her abductors!"
"You think it an abduction?"
"What else?—a vile, wicked scheme. Perhaps she is now in peril—under their mercy!—oh, God!" And the Earl clasped his hands in agony.