the rebellion of 1715, when in an ill-omened hour the standard of the
Stuart was set up, to the ruin of many honourable families, Rashleigh,
with more than another Jacobite agent, revealed the plot to the
Government. My poor uncle, Sir Hildebrand, was easily persuaded to join
the standard of the Stuarts, and was soon taken and lodged in Newgate.
He died in prison, but before he died he spoke with great bitterness
against Rashleigh, now his only surviving child, and declared that
neither he nor his sons who had perished would have plunged into
political intrigue but for that very member of his family who had been
the first to desert them. By his will, Sir Hildebrand devised his
estates at Osbaldistone Hall to me as his next heir, cutting off
Rashleigh with a shilling.

Rashleigh had yet one more card to play. The villain was aware that
Diana's father, Sir Frederick Vernon, whose life had been forfeited for
earlier Jacobite plots, lived in hiding at Osbaldistone Hall, and this
had given him power over Miss Vernon.

Some time after I had returned to my father's office, I decided to visit
Osbaldistone and take possession. On my arrival, Diana met me in the
dining hall with her father.

"We are your suppliants, Mr. Osbaldistone," said the old knight; "we
claim the refuge and protection of your roof till we can pursue a
journey where dungeons and death gape for me at every step."

"Surely," I articulated, "Miss Vernon cannot suppose me capable of
betraying anyone, much less you?"

But scarcely had they retired to rest that night, when Rashleigh arrived