A Moorland Legend. 121 



from her from Rouen, announcing her intention of spending 

 the rest of her days in an Italian convent. While we were 

 searching the continent for her, she was here as Miss Western, 

 serving cider to the country folks, and waiting obediently 

 upon any chance customer who required the ministrations 

 of a barmaid. 



" I will confine myself to bare facts. There is a warder 

 here named Hinton, a private detective sort of person. I 

 have discovered that he was induced to come here, in the 

 pay of, and in constant communication with, Alice. He was 

 unable to do much, but on two occasions he tells me he 

 delivered messages, assuring the convict that she was in the 

 place, ever watchful of his interests. 'Tell her/ he sent 

 answer, 'my degradation is light in comparison with her 

 sorrow; tell her she has my pity, for she has my love/ 

 This man (Hinton) says it is impossible that Alice could 

 have had any hand in the escape, and the statements of 

 persons who observed the wretched girl when the wounded 

 prisoners were brought in, quite corroborate this assertion. 

 Hinton swears he, too, had nothing whatever to do with the 

 matter. This we must take for what it is worth. It seems 

 certain that Alice was taken by surprise ; also that she is 

 wandering in search of him. 



" So far I have confined myself to facts, and you must 

 pardon me if they have been put with apparent hardness. 

 Pardon me, also, and deem me not wanting in filial duty and 

 affection, if I betray a hardness of heart in what I have yet 

 to write, for it is, alas, an inherited hardness. But for 

 your obstinate worldliness, these horrors would not have 

 accumulated. 



" To you the behaviour of your daughter and my sister 

 may appear but the madness of despairing affection. You 

 know that her life was bound up in his, and you cannot have 



