We found the
window-shutters, which I had barred overnight, open, but the
window itself was down. The fire had been out long enough for the
grate to be quite cold. Half the bottle of brandy had been drunk.
The carpet-bag was gone. There were no marks of violence or
struggling anywhere about the bed or the room. We examined every
corner carefully, but made no other discoveries than these.
When I returned to the servants' hall, bad news of my mistress
was awaiting me there. The unusual noise and confusion in the
house had reached her ears, and she had been told what had
happened without sufficient caution being exercised in preparing
her to hear it. In her weak, nervous state, the shock of the
intelligence had quite prostrated her. She had fallen into a
swoon, and had been brought back to her senses with the greatest
difficulty. As to giving me or anybody else directions what to do
under the e mbarrassing circumstances which had now occurred, she
was totally incapable of the effort.
I waited till the middle of the day, in the hope that she might
get strong enough to give her orders; but no message came from
her. At last I resolved to send and ask her what she thought it
best to do. Josephine was the proper person to go on this errand;
but when I asked for Josephine, she was nowhere to be found.
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