“I suppose the plaintiff soon discharged her debtor out of custody?”

“Without loss of time, you may be sure.  Miss Brandon, I may tell you, is with the Rev. Mr. Derwent at Brompton.  You know him:  the newly-married curate of St. Margaret’s that was examined in that will case.  Well him:  he is an intelligent, high-principled man; and I have no doubt that, under his and Mrs. Derwent’s care, all trace of Miss Brandon’s mental infirmity will disappear long before she attains her majority next June twelvemonth; whilst the liberal sum per month which Lady Compton will advance, will be of great service to him”

“That appears all very good.  But are you sure you can effectually conceal the place of her retreat?”

“I have no fear:  the twigs that will entangle her precious guardians in the labyrinths of a false clue are already set and limed.  Before to-morrow night they will have discovered, by means of their own wonderfully-penetrative sagacity, that Clara has been spirited over to France; and before three months are past, the same surprising intelligence will rejoice in the discovery that she expired in a maison de sante—­fine comfortable repose, in which fool’s paradise I hope to have the honor of awakening them about next June twelvemonth, and not as at present advised before!”

Everything fortunately turned out as Mr. Ferret anticipated; and when a few months had glided by, Clara Brandon was a memory only, save of course to the few entrusted with the secret.

The whirligig of time continued as ever to speed on its course, and bring round in due season its destined revenges.  The health, mental and bodily, of Miss Brandon rapidly improved under the kind and judicious treatment of Mr. and Mrs. Derwent; and long before the attainment of her majority, were pronounced by competent authority to be thoroughly re-established.  The day following that which completed her twentyfirst year, Mr. Ferret, armed with the necessary authority, had the pleasure of announcing to the relict of Major Brandon (he had been dead some months), and to her brutal son, that they must forthwith depart from the home in which they, to the very moment of his announcement, thought themselves secure; and surrender every shilling of the property they had so long dreamt was their own.  They were prostrated by the intelligence, and proved as mean and servile in the hour of adversity, as they had been insolent and cruel in the day of fancied success and prosperity.  The pension of three hundred pounds a year for both their lives, proffered by Miss Brandon, was eagerly accepted; and they returned to the obscurity from which they had by accident emerged.

About six months afterwards, I had the pleasure of drawing up the marriage settlement between Clara Brandon and Herbert Burford; and a twelvemonth after, that of standing sponsor to one of the lustiest brats ever sprinkled at a font:  none of which delightful results, if we are to believe Mr. Ferret, would have ever been arrived at had not he, at a very critical moment, refused to take counsel’s opinion upon the virtues, capabilities, and powers contained in the great writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum.