led in! He never attended the old man! Let him mind his own
business! I was all night at the Three Goblets. Yes, I was! The new
darling will catch it--going off with the money upon him--' and the
laugh made their blood run cold. 'I've got the receipt;' and he made
an attempt at thrusting his hand under the pillow, but failing, swore,
shouted, howled with his last strength, that he had been robbed--the
pocket-book--it would hang him! and with one of the most fearful
shrieks of despair that had perhaps ever rung through that asylum of
pain, woe, and death, the wretched spirit departed.

Tom May turned aside, made a few steps, and, to the infinite surprise
of every one, fell helplessly down in a swoon. A nature of deep and
real sensibility, though repressed by external reserve and prudence,
could not with entire impunity undergo such a scene. The sudden
discovery, the vehement excitement forced down, the intense strain of
expectation, and finally, the closing horror of such a death, betraying
the crime without repenting of it, passing to the other world with
imprecations on the lips, and hatred in the glare of the eye, all the
frightfulness enhanced by the familiarity of the allusions, and the
ghastly association of the tones that had tempted and tyrannized over
his childhood, altogether crushed and annihilated his faculties, mental
and bodily.

Oh, when our very hearts burn for justice, how little do we know how
intolerable would be the sight of it! Tom's caution and readiness
returned as soon as--after a somewhat long interval--he began to
distinguish the voices round him, and perceive the amazement he had
created. Before he was able to sit up on the couch, where he had been
laid out of sight of the scene which had affected him so strongly, he
was urging his friend to set down all that had been spoken, and on
Gaspard's writing a separate deposition. The pocket-book, and other
effects, were readily ceded to the British authority, and were carried
away with them.

How Tom got through the remaining hours of the day and the night he
never recollected, though he knew it must have been in the bustle of
preparation, and that he had imparted the tidings to Leonard's friend
Brown, for when he and his friend had attended that which answered to
an inquest on the body, and had obtained a report of the proceedings,
he was ready to start by the night train, bearing with him the
attestations of the death-bed scene at the H