After such
consideration as circumstances permitted, he could discern only one
chance of escape, and though well-nigh hopeless, he resolved to adopt
it. If consummate audacity could carry him through--and it was required
in the present emergency--he had no lack of it.
Hitherto, not a word had passed between him and the intruders on his
privacy. Lady Lake seemed to enjoy his confusion too much to do anything
to relieve it, and his wife was obliged to regulate her movements by
those of her mother. Without breaking the silence, which by this time
had become painfully oppressive, he proceeded to deposit the still
inanimate person of the Countess of Exeter upon a couch, and, casting a
handkerchief, as if undesignedly, over her face, he marched quickly up
to the spot where Diego was standing, and said to him, in a deep,
determined tone, but so low as not to be overheard by the others:
"You have betrayed me, villain; and unless you obey me unhesitatingly,
and corroborate all my assertions, however startling they may appear,
you shall pay for your treachery with your life."
This done, he turned towards the two ladies, and with more calmness than
might have been expected, addressed himself to Lady Lake:
"You imagine you have made an important discovery, Madam," he said; "a
discovery which will place me and a noble lady, whose reputation you and
your daughter seek to injure, in great perplexity. And you conclude
that, being completely (as you fancy) in your power, I shall consent to
any terms you and Lady Roos may propose, rather than suffer you to go
forth from this chamber and reveal what you have seen in it.
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