the total amount that should be discovered--to induce these to come
forward if they existed, but without result. And so the matter went
on, till after a few years the quest died away and was forgotten.

"Meanwhile the son, Sir Edward, who was the second and last baronet,
led a wandering life abroad, fearing or not caring to return to
England now that all his property had been seized. When he was two-
and-twenty years of age, however, he contracted an imprudent marriage
with his cousin, a lady of the name of Ida Dofferleigh, a girl of good
blood and great beauty, but without means. Indeed, she was the sister
of Geoffrey Dofferleigh, who was a first cousin and companion in exile
of Sir Edward's, and as you will presently see, my lineal ancestor.
Well, within a year of this marriage, poor Ida, my namesake, died with
her baby of fever, chiefly brought on, they say, by want and anxiety
of mind, and the shock seems to have turned her husband's brain. At
any rate, within three or four months of her death, he committed
suicide. But before he did so, he formally executed a rather elaborate
will, by which he left all his estates in England, 'now unjustly
withheld from me contrary to the law and natural right by the rebel
pretender Cromwell, together with the treasure hidden thereon or
elsewhere by my late murdered father, Sir James de la Molle,' to John
Geoffrey Dofferleigh, his cousin, and the brother of his late wife,
and his heirs for ever, on condition only of his assuming the name and
arms of the de la Molle family, the direct line of which became
extinct with himself. Of course, this will, when it was executed, was
to all appearance so much waste paper, but within three years from
that date Charles II. was King of England.

"Thereon Geoffrey Dofferleigh produced the document, and on assuming
the name and arms of de la Molle actually succeeded in obtaining the