“And by whom has he been informed of it?”
“By your Grace.”
“By me? I do not recollect to have discovered to him any thing.”
“Not directly; however, you have betrayed yourself.”
“On what occasion?”
“When he paid you a visit at **ubia. Do you not recollect to have asked him whether he had discovered to Amelia that your real father had not been the murderer of her Lord? This you could not have known if you had not seen my papers.”
“It is true”, the Duke replied after a short silence, “however, those papers did not extend farther than to the time when Hiermanfor was taken up in your and my tutor’s presence. I was then going to descend into the subterraneous vaults of a ruinous building, in order to take a brilliant pin out of the hair of a sleeping virgin.”
“I know it; but you would have found neither the sleeping virgin nor any of those things which Hiermanfor told you you would meet with.”
“Is it possible; should he have risked a fraud in which I so easily could have found him out?”
“He knew before-hand that you would not get to the bottom of the staircase, for it was settled previously that I should appear in time with the officers of the police, and recall your Grace by firing a pistol.”