The Castle seemed inured to quiet by his Grace’s long illness; but now there fell a subtle silence that presaged the coming of an unwholesome visitant.  In a room apart lay Adrian Cantemir, weak and sick, but cursing every breath he drew; excited at times to actual madness, and saying,—­Why had he come a minute too late?  Why had he not followed his own inclinations and broken away from the gambling table at the inn an hour earlier? such thoughts making him absolutely furious.

He had arrived some time after dark at Crandlemar village, and, putting up at the hostelry, he resolved to pay his visit to the castle early on the morrow.  He was now beginning to feel that he was destined to gain his point, or why had he so far thwarted Lord Cedric, and why had he escaped the anger of the monks by a well worded and quickly manufactured tale, and even gained their help by it, when they found him bound in the passage, left so by Buckingham.  So he had felt somewhat at ease, but love and ambition were strong and stirred him to leave wine and cards and ride out into the open; and, unwitting it may be, to the castle gates.  He travelled without groom; so fastening his horse, he entered the avenue a-foot, soon reaching the dark pile of stone which appeared in absolute darkness.  Aimlessly he left the avenue and sauntered across the terraces.  He had heard a peculiar low murmuring of voices and drew near only to hear Katherine made the wife of another man; hardly understanding until the Chaplain gave the blessing.  He knew what Katherine did not; that she was the wife of Lord Cedric and not Sir Julian.  He flung himself with all his fury upon the bridegroom to no avail, as has been seen.

These inflammable thoughts, as Cantemir rehearsed them over and over, set his brain afire and before night he was in a fever.  The kind and gentle Lady Bettie Payne, who had arrived late in the afternoon, had gathered nosegays and made bright his chamber, for she truly had compassion upon him.  He called her Katherine, as she gave him cooling draughts with her own hand.

Lord Cedric was somewhat surprised the next evening to that of his wedding to see the Duke of Buckingham standing in the great hall of the castle.  And when the Duke’s business was thrust upon him, there came also dark forebodings; a separation of indefinite length from his young wife, should he be taken to the Tower.  Great was his surprise at the Duke’s first words, for they were that Katherine’s father was alive and well and in London.  He gave quickly the whole story of Sir John’s escape, also the attempt to recapture him.  Then came what his Lordship expected;—­a request for a fortune.  Of course, while Cedric thought the amounts asked would not be wholly a loss, yet he knew the amounts allowed of a great margin of perquisites, and to whom these perquisites would go, he could guess.  However, without question or complaint, he agreed to give what the Duke asked for; indeed the matters were settled there and then.