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assistance I have just asked of you you may seriously commit yourself with the king."
"If that is all," replied the marquis,” let it pass.
“I think that, with the concurrence of one who will have a voice in my affairs—"
He exchanged a beaming smile with Agnes.
"Yes; I may say, I think, with the concurrence of that one, that the intrigues and ambitions of the court at St. James's will for the future concern me little."
"But your rank in the army, marquis?"
"Still, with the concurrence of that one, who I see ratifies my words by her looks, I may say that I intend resigning my commission in his Majesty's service."
"Oh! Markham, Markham, my father! my father!"
Bertha almost shook him by the arm in her agony to be gone.
"At once, Bertha, at once. Dick Martin, where are you?"
"Here, captain."
"You must come with us, my boy."
"Yes, captain."
Markham then looked tenderly at Bertha.
"Dare I advise?" he said. "No, Markham, no. I feel I know what you would say."
"But reflect a moment."
"No, Markham, I cannot reflect; I can only feel. You wish me to remain here while you search for my father."
"That was the wish."
"I cannot, Markham, 1 cannot. We will go together."
"Together, then, for ever," said Markham, in low tones.
They bowed profoundly to the queen.
"Madam," he said,
"I can find no words to thank you, and the gratitude of one so humble as myself can never hope to show itself in deeds, as regards a queen; but while life remains to me I can never forgot the events of this night."
"Say no more," replied the queen, in low weak tones.
"Say no more, any of you, but provide for your own safety as quickly as you can."
"l am with you, Markham, eaid tho inr [ " At once, then, colonel, at once." *' Mr. Osborn," said the queen, " I rely upon you to see them safely out of the palace. Lucy Kerr, and you, Agnes, have a right to he here and will remain with
me. So Heaven protect you all !"
The queen's sadness and emotion were too great to permit her to say more, and she retired at ouco into the oratory, closing tho door behind her, which was a
sufficient signal that she wished to be alone. Mr. Osborn, the page of the back stairs, did his duty well and discreetly. He conducted Markham and Bertha into tho court yard, where the Marquis of Charlton, by virtue of his rank in the army, would bo able to pass them easily,
not only out of the precincts of the palace, but from the park likewise. It was highly necessary that some one should be able to do so whose authority could not bo questioned, for the hour was late, and tho sentinels wero apt to bo fidgetty in allowing any ono to pass their posts. Dick Martin led the way, walking somo dozen paces in advance. Bertha leant upon tlio arm of Markham, nnd tho Marquis of Charlton walked on tho other side of him. "I do not wish for a single moment, Markham," he said, " to intrudo upon your confidence, or upon that of this young lady, but I have ono question to ask." " There can be no intrusion, marquis, from you upon us," replied Markham. "Ask any question freely,
and we will answer it." " It is a very simple one, and yet important." The marquis looked rather grave as ho spoke. " Is thoro anything, Markham, in what I do not know of all those matters connected with tho Jacobito plots now so much in voguo and so much talked off" " Nothing whatever." " That is a great relief to me." " I am most sincerely glad, then, that you asked tho question, Charlton." " Then, although his Majesty has talked so much of treason," added the marquis, " it is a mere outcry, and thorc is nothing of the sort r" "Nothing of the sort, nor the shadow of anything
of the sort. " I am so glad to hear you say so, Markham, for I am still a soldier of tho king, although I shall not be so much longer." " You must reflect again," said Bertha, "you must reflect again, sir, and you must not, because we have been unhappy and cruelly used, cast away from you what may be a bright future." " I havo achieved a brighter future than any I could
cast away. I have no relish for this town lite and for the intrigues and the cabals of the court."
" Nor I," said Markham. " I have a competent fortune and a fine estate for away from London, and there, as a country gentleman, I hope to pass my days in peace." " Halt ! ' cried a sentinel at one of the smaller gates of the pork. " Halt for countersign !" The Marquis of Charlton stepped up. " You know me f"
" Yes, colonel, but—"
" Pho ; pho ' man. Stand aside. You see we are
officers of the guard." The sentinel made no further opposition, and in a
few seconds more the little party emenred in front of
Whitehall. How gloomy and dreary it looked !
Tho rain had entirely ceased, but the night was dark, and objects were only distinguishable against the clouds
by being a little blacker still. The few miserable oil lamps that lit even that im portant thoroughfare glimmered like very faint stars
indeed. But all Markham's attention was confined and con centrated on Bertha, who clung almost convulsively to
his arm. " Markham ! dear Markham !' '
" Yes, my Bertha f" " He will not—you do not think he will strive to
partus?" " Your father f" "Yes; my father." " Assuredly not, Bertha. Why should he strive to part us ? Has not Providence ffung us together be- causo it knew that we should lovo ench other ? You will tell him, Bertha, how I have slriven to be to you the friend, tho brother, before I wns tho lover ; and I
will tell him how you would bavo died for or with me. Oh ! no, ho will not strive to part us." But Bortha still clung clo'tr to Markham, for the idea had taken possession of her simple heart that sho must needs leave him nnrl commence anew that dreamy and lonely life from which in truth he might be said to
have rescued her. And now they crossed one of the gloomy courtyards
of Whitehall, and, preceded by the drummer, they mado their way into the building through some of the inferior
offices. There was a narrow passage, a winding staircaso, then a large corridor, and tho lantern which Dick Martin had lighted flung thoir shadows like grotesque phantoms upon the damp dismantled walls. ''Dick," said Markham, "are you quite sure you
can lead the way P" " Quite sure, captain, if I can once get to a room
which I took particular notice of." " What is the room like, Dick f"
" It is a large room, captain, and leads into another where there seems to have been a fire on the hearth not long ago, and thoro was a sort of sofa before the fire, ana some cushions nnd other things on it, as if sonio
ono had been sleeping there." "He speaks of what wo may call our rooms," said '
Markham gently. " He does, Markham, and I know the way. This gallery that we are now in I crossed when 1 followed I
you to St. James's, and I know every inch of the route, j

for I kept turning back to notice it, in case I should

servations, for Dick Martin was evidently confused by the many suites of rooms, galleries, and corridors of the immense pile of building. Still clinging, thon, to tho arm of Markham, she took the lead now, and in a few minutes they all found them selves in that apartment where she and Markham had first found a refuge from tho storm on tho Thames. "This is it," said Dick Martin, "this is it. I stood hero ever so long and tapped the drunij and then I
went through that door yonder, and walked along a long
naiTowroom with ever so many pictures in it, and at the end of that I saw him." Captain Markham was about to say that he too had seen what looked like tho Mystery in Scarlet during
his brief sojourn in old Whitehall. 'But there was a
strange creeping sort of fear at his heart which kept
him silent. He stood for a few seconds by that same table on
which he had placed the lighted candle whilo ho kept watch and ward over the slumbers of Bortha in tho next apartment. .
And: there, in the dim distance, enveloped in shadow, was tho door through which the spectral -looking imago of the Mystery in fecarlot had made its appearances. What if it were, after all, really a spectral appear ance—an unreal mockery ?
Might there not be such things ?
That was not a very scientific age. Tho march of modern scepticism had not yet thoroughly laid all apparitions. And so Captain Markham felt a cold shudder per vade his frame as Dick Martin, pointing to the further end of the apartment, indicated the shadowy gloomy door, and said—
"Yonder is the way we must go, captain."
CHAPTER XLVII.
EVERY INCH A lilXO.
By an effort Markham roused himself from the gloom that waH creeping over him. " Wo will follow, Dick, we will follow. Come, Bertha, wo will follow, and may Heaven guide us to a
happy issue !" " Amen," said Bertha, gently.
The tone in which she spoke seemed to linger in tho air about them, as though it were repeated by sonio
gentle invisible spirits who were accompanying them
on this errand of lovo and mercy. The drummer boy led the way, and, opening that gloomy-looking door, he turned, and, holding up his lan tern, as a smile sat upon his face, he said—
" I thought tho gentleman was a ghost at first, and was half a mind not to follow him."
" Oh ! on ! on !" cried Bertha. " Do not lot us pause one moment now."
" Then hero's the gallery with all the pictures," added Dick Martin, as he held up tho lantern as high as he could. There was an air of rich faded magnificence about this gallery, which was owing to the thick clustering of tho gilt frames of the pictures that entirely covered the walls. Dust lay rather thickly on tho floor, and there was no moveable furniture whatever in the place. " You will sec," said Dick Martin, as ho held down the lantern to tho floor, " that this is tho way lie must havo come, and I too, for there's no end of footsteps through the dust." This was perfectly true, and a moment's exami nation was sufficient to show that that gallery must
have been a thoroughfare for more than one person. At the further extremity there was a doublo door—
that is to say, two doors, which when both closed formed a perfect arch above.
Dick Martin opened ono of them without ceremony. Tho apartment into which it led was crammed and heaped up with furniture of all kinds and descriptions, some of which had no doubt at one time belonged to tho picture gallery. "We go straight ou," said Dick Martin.
And now so intense was the expectation both of Markham and Bertha that they did not exchange a
word. As for the young Marquis of Charlton, he was look ing about him with such curiosity, during this march into tho interior of old Whitehall, that he interposed no obstacle to the silence of his companions.
The drummer then suddenly paused in a room with a very high ceiling, that was either domed or artisti
cally painted to seem so. " He s in the next room," he said. The overwrought feelings of Bertha could bo re pressed no longer.
She tremblingly took tho lantern from tho hands of Dick Martin, and with short t.harp cries, with which tho word " Father !" was intermingled, she made her
way through the open doorway that led to the adjoin ing apartment. The first and most natural impulse of Captain Mark ham was to follow Bertha at once. A second thought restrained him. "No," he said, in low tones, "let this first meeting between tho father and the child he sacred." There was a terrible silence. And there was as terrible a darkness.
Tho light of tho lantern had been but dim and uncertain, Imt the difference between that and tho ab solute gloom which surrounded Captain Markham, iho Marquis of Charlton, and Dick Martin, as they now stood together, deprived of its feeble rays, was im
mense. They could only just see oach other like three black shadows.
Thon they startod, and a half cry burst from tho lips of Captain Markham. It was a cry that he found it vory difficult to re
press, for tho voico of Bertha had conic from tho adjoining apartment, and tho few words sho uttered contained a whole history of hope for the future. " You will live, father—you will live—and wo shall be so very happy." Then there was a softly-murmured reply, in which tho words " My child !" were the only ones'audible.
They heard Bertha then sobbing and trying to speak. And then came the inaudiblo voice again, speaking soothingly. Another moment, and there was a flash of faint light, as tho door, which had nearly shut of itself, was
opened, and Bertha spoke. " Come here, Markham ! come here, Marquis of Charlton ! My father lives, and is strong enough to thank you both. Come hero ! oh ! come here !" Tho two young men immediately entered tho ad joining chamber. And there, by the light of the lantern, which Bertha had placed upon tho chmmcypiecc, they saw lying on a couch a pale and somewhat ghastly figure—a figure attired in a scarlet coat — a face and figure which, although strange and utterly unknown to the Marquis of Charlton, came with a rush of recollection to the memory of Captain Markham. It was the face that ho had seen in the palace of Kow after the fall of that massive curtain which had separated the file of guards before they fired through it, and brought it down by the concussion of the discharge. It was the face of the man whom ho had pursued through tho shattered casement of the palace and into
the gardens. It was the face of the mnn whom ho had hold in hid arms faint and bleeding, apparently unto death.