of that night when all this treasure was packed up in great chests and boxes, and carried at dead of night by trusty servants into the heart of the forest, and buried beneath a certain giant oak many times pointed out to us, and well-nigh killed in after years by the diggings around it in search of the missing hoard.  To secure this treasure, and bury it out of the reach of rapacious and covetous hands, was the aim and object of that hurried journey taken on the evening of the Queen’s decease.  None were in the secret save three old servants, whose faithful loyalty to the family had been tested in a thousand different ways.  Those three, together with my grandfather and your father, packed and transported with their own hands this great treasure into the wood, and there entombed it.  None else knew of that night’s work.  No other eye saw what was done.  They worked the whole night through, and by the tardy dawn all was done, and even the soil of the forest so cleverly arranged that none could guess at the existence of that deep grave.  And who would guess the secret of that tangled forest?  Even were it thought that the gold and silver had been hid, who would have such skill as to guess the spot, and go and filch it thence?  And yet it must have been carried away full soon.  For Nicholas Trevlyn, in his anxious greed, visited the spot not many weeks later—­visited it by stealth, for he and his brother were alike in hiding, waiting for the first burst of vengeful fury to be over—­and he found it gone!  He thought on the first survey that all was well; but on more closely examining the ground his heart misgave him, for it appeared to him as if the soil had been moved.  With anxious haste he began to dig, and soon his spade struck the lid of one of the chests.  For a moment he breathed again; but he was impelled to carry his search farther.  He uncovered the chest and raised the lid—­it was empty!  In a wild fear and fury he dug again and again, and with the same result.  Every chest or box was in its place, but every one was empty!  The treasure had been spirited away by some spoiler’s hand; the treasure of Trevlyn was lost from that night forward!”

Cuthbert was leaning forward drinking all in with eager curiosity.

“My father discovered the loss—­my father?”

Kate nodded her head, and seemed to divine the thought in his mind, for she answered as if he had spoken it aloud.

“We have all thought of that.  I know it is sometimes in my father’s mind as he looks at his kinsman’s grim face; but our grand sire never suspected him for a moment—­nay, he vowed he was certain he had had no part nor lot in the matter.  For there was nothing but accord between the brothers; they shared good and evil hap alike.  It was with his son, my father, who abjured the old faith and became a Protestant, that your father picked a quarrel.  He hated his brother’s wife, it is true; but he never appeared to hate his brother.  And he suffered more than any in the years that followed.  He lost his all, and has been a ruined man since.  If he had a secret hoard, sure he would scarce live the life he does now.”