Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 4).djvu/297

These instructions were merely to do every thing which could gain the favour and confidence of St. Julian, and render him unsuspicious of the designs upon his daughter. To forward which designs, it was determined that all the horrors of superstition should be awakened in his breast; when once infected, once enervated by them, he might easily, D'Alembert believed, be made the dupe of art and villainy. For the purpose of exciting those horrors, Lafroy secreted himself in the chamber of Lord Philippe, to which he gained access by a way not known to many of the family, and forgotten by those who did know it, from its being long disused. Immediately behind the bedstead was a small door which opened into a dark closet, communicating with a flight of back stairs; those stairs, and this closet, previous to his residence at the castle, had been shut up, and chance first discovered them to him. A valuable ring of his Lord's was mislaid one day, and, in searching for it, he pushed aside the bedstead, and perceived the door; curi-