A strict search was set on foot; at length the women of the house remembered the glee maiden, and ventured to suggest her as one not unlikely to exchange an old cloak for a new one.

The warder, strictly questioned, averred he saw the dey woman depart immediately after vespers; and on this being contradicted by the party herself, he could suggest, as the only alternative, that it must needs have been the devil.
As, however, the glee woman could not be found, the real circumstances of the case were easily guessed at; and the steward went to inform Sir John Ramorny and Dwining, who were now scarcely ever separate, of the escape of one of their female captives.

Everything awakens the suspicions of the guilty.

They looked on each other with faces of dismay, and then went together to the humble apartment of Catharine, that they might take her as much as possible by surprise while they inquired into the facts attending Louise's disappearance.
"Where is your companion, young woman ?" said Ramorny, in a tone of austere gravity.
"I have no companion here," answered Catharine.
"Trifle not," replied the knight; "I mean the glee maiden, who lately dwelt in this chamber with you." "She is gone, they tell me," said Catharine--"gone about an hour since." "And whither ?" said Dwining.
"How," answered Catharine, "should I know which way a professed wanderer may choose to travel?
She was tired no doubt of a solitary life, so different from the scenes of feasting and dancing which her trade leads her to frequent.

She is gone, and the only wonder is that she should have stayed so long." "This, then," said Ramorny, "is all you have to tell us ?" "All that I have to tell you, Sir John," answered Catharine, firmly; "and if the Prince himself inquire, I can tell him no more." "There is little danger of his again doing you the honour to speak to you in person," said Ramorny, "even if Scotland should escape being rendered miserable by the sad event of his decease." "Is the Duke of Rothsay so very ill ?" asked Catharine.
"No help, save in Heaven," answered Ramorny, looking upward.
"Then may there yet be help there," said Catharine, "if human aid prove unavailing!" "Amen!" said Ramorny, with the most determined gravity; while Dwining adopted a face fit to echo the feeling, though it seemed to cost him a painful struggle to suppress his sneering yet soft laugh of triumph, which was peculiarly excited by anything having a religious tendency.
"And it is men--earthly men, and not incarnate devils, who thus appeal to Heaven, while they are devouring by inches the life blood of their hapless master!" muttered Catharine, as her two baffled inquisitors left the apartment.