Reginald
knew that his father would never consent, but we enlisted the sympathy
of the chaplain, and he, mild, unworldly man, married us one day in
the consecrated chapel of the castle.
'As I have told you, the house at that time contained many servants,
and I think, without being sure, that the butler, whom I feared even
more than Lord Rantremly himself, got some inkling of what was going
forward. But, be that as it may, he and his lordship entered the
chapel just as the ceremony was finished, and there followed an
agonising scene. His lordship flung the ancient chaplain from his
place, and when Reginald attempted to interfere, the maddened nobleman
struck his son full in the face with his clenched fist, and my husband
lay as one dead on the stone floor of the chapel. By this time the
butler had locked the doors, and had rudely torn the vestments from
the aged, half-insensible clergyman, and with these tied him hand and
foot. All this took place in a very few moments, and I stood there as
one paralysed, unable either to speak or scream, not that screaming
would have done me any good in that horrible place of thick walls. The
butler produced a key, and unlocked a small, private door at the side
of the chapel which led from the apartments of his lordship to the
family pew.
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