Suffice it to say that she had been deserted by her husband, and did not now know whether she was or was not a widow.

This was in truth the only mystery attached to her.

She herself was an Englishwoman, though a Catholic; but she had been left early an orphan, and had been brought up in a provincial town of France by her grandmother.

There she had married a certain Captain O'Hara, she having some small means of her own sufficient to make her valuable in the eyes of an adventurer.

At that time she was no more than eighteen, and had given her hand to the Captain in opposition to the wishes of her only guardian.