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convinced, was pleasuring himself in the bed of Lady Carsey and had forgotten all about the footman.
     
    At five in the morning, Lord Augustus crept from Lady Carsey’s bed and as softly as a cat began to prowl about the room, looking in boxes and drawers. He felt shaky and exhausted. What a night! At one point he had begun to despair of ever tiring her out. He felt soiled and dirty in mind and body. She was an evil woman, and, he had learned, mad in a vicious way. The light from a tall candle shone across Lady Carsey’s body. She was lying on her back, with her mouth slightly open. He searched quickly and rapidly. Where could she have hidden it? He doubted whether she had thrown it away. He had quickly learned she was avaricious. And then he wondered whether she might after all just have left it in her jewel box. The servants seemed to be her creatures, and besides, only her lady’s maid other than herself would know if the brooch was still there. He tried the lid of her jewel box. It was locked. He searched in his coat, which he had slung over the back of a chair, until he found a penknife. He slid the blade under the lock. It was not very strong and snapped open with a crack. He waited. The figure on the bed said something andstirred. Then there was a gentle snore. He opened the lid and began to lift out the trays of brooches and necklaces. And there, at the very bottom of the box, he found it – a diamond brooch, oblong and with an edging of sapphires.
    Lord Augustus thought quickly. If he awoke her and accused her of her perfidy, she would have time to hide the brooch again, and it would only be his word against hers. If he took the brooch to the authorities, she might claim it was a twin of the one of the footman had taken and accuse him, too, of theft.
    He dressed very quickly and let himself softly out of the room and then out of the Manor. Penelope and Hannah would not have recognized the indolent Lord Augustus in the figure that fled down the drive as if all the demons in hell were after him. He ran at great speed straight to the prison and roused the guards and the governor, demanding that a constable and magistrate should come to the Manor with him immediately.
     
    Lady Carsey awoke and stretched like a cat. She rolled over in bed but felt no warm body in the bed beside her. She yawned and sat up. The bedhangings were drawn back and a candle burned and flickered in its stick. Her sleepy eyes fell on the jewel box, which lay on her toilet table with the lid thrown back.
    She swung her legs out of bed and stood up just as the door of her bedchamber was flung open and Lord Augustus, followed by the magistrate, the constable, and the governor of the prison, burst into the room.
    * * *
    Benjamin Stubbs was led out of his prison cell and then out to the gallows. It was five minutes to six in the morning, and he was to hang at six. Only a small group of townspeople had gathered to see the hanging. Hangings were such an everyday event that few troubled to rouse themselves to watch. But Hannah and Penelope were there, clutching hold of each other, their eyes weary with lack of sleep.
    ‘You should not be here,’ said Hannah to Penelope. ‘There is nothing we can do now.’
    ‘I cannot, I will not, believe that Lord Augustus should abandon us in this shameless way,’ said Penelope. ‘My papa is always saying the aristocracy are lazy and effete. Why does he then want me to marry one of them? The world is a stupid, wicked place.’
    Benjamin mounted the scaffold. His face was white and tense, his eyes bleak. He looked down and saw Hannah and Penelope and made them a stiff bow.
    ‘Look the other way, Penelope,’ urged Hannah. ‘God grant me the strength, for when he hangs, I am going to jump on that scaffold and pull his legs so his neck will break and it at least will be quick.’
    The prison chaplain read a doleful sermon. The rope was put around Benjamin’s neck.
    ‘Hold hard!’ shouted a voice.
    Everyone