“I am engaged, by one who wishes you well, to take your place, sweet Mistress Aveline, and to be married in your stead to Sir Francis Mitchell,” she said.

“And have you really consented to such an arrangement?” rejoined Aveline.  “Is it possible you can sacrifice yourself thus?”

“I am not to be sacrificed,” returned the damsel quickly.  “If it were so, I would never have agreed to the scheme.  But I am told I shall get a fortune, and—­”

“Oh, then the ten thousand marks are for you!” interrupted the other.  “I now see the meaning of that part of the plan.  But what else do you hope to accomplish?”

“The deliverance of my unfortunate lover, Dick Taverner, from the Fleet,” she answered.

“But how is your marrying this wicked old usurer to effect your object?” inquired Aveline.  “You may save me by the proposed stratagem; but you will destroy your own happiness, and all your lover’s hopes.”

“No, no, I shall not,” replied Gillian, hastily; “I can’t tell how it’s to be managed, but I am quite sure no harm will happen to me, and that Dick’s restoration to liberty will be the reward of the service—­if such it may be called—­that I am about to render you.  He wrote to me so himself.”

“At least, tell me by whom you are engaged, and I can then judge of the probability of the rest happening in the way you anticipate?”

“Do not question me further, sweet mistress,” replied the damsel, “for I am bound to secrecy.  But thus much I may declare—­I am the agent of one, who, for some purposes of his own—­be they what they may—­is determined to counteract all Sir Francis’s vile machinations against you, as well as those of his partner, Sir Giles Mompesson, against your lover, Sir Jocelyn Mounchensey.  Ah! you understand me now, I perceive, sweet mistress!  You have been guarded by this unseen but watchful friend, during the whole of your confinement in this dreadful habitation; and he has kept an equal watch over your lover in the Fleet.”

“What!  Is Sir Jocelyn a prisoner in the Fleet?” exclaimed Aveline.  “I knew it not!”

“He is; but the period of his deliverance approaches,” replied Gillian.  “The secret friend I spoke of has bided his time, and the hour is at hand when full measure of revenge will be dealt upon those two wicked oppressors.  He has long worked towards it; and I myself, am to be an humble instrument towards the great end.”

“You astonish me!” cried Aveline, greatly surprised at the change in the damsel’s manner as well as by what she said.

“Do not perplex yourself, fair mistress,” pursued Gillian.  “All will be speedily made known to you.  But now, no more time must be lost, and we must each assume the character we have to enact.  As I am to be the bride, and you the tire-woman, you must condescend to aid me in putting on these rich robes and then disguise yourself in my rustic attire.  We are both pretty nearly of a