oloured blade, his joints shook with terror, and the knife fell from
his trembling hand. Superstition was ever largely blended with the
settled ferocity of Bartholdy's character, and I now attribute this
emotion to a fear that his destiny was in some way connected with this
fatal weapon, which had already caused his long imprisonment, and would
now too probably endanger his life. This ungovernable agitation
confirmed the general suspicion excited by his forbidding and savage
exterior. He was immediately conveyed to the hotel of the police, and
the knife was placed before him; but when again interrogated, he long
persisted in denying all knowledge of it. When questioned, however, as
to his name and occupation, and his object in the city of D., his
embarrassment increased, his replies involved him in contradictions, and
at length he admitted that he _had_ seen the knife before, and in _your_
possession. This attempt to criminate you by implication, failed,
however, to point any suspicion against one whose unblemished life and
character were so well known in the university. Your gentle and retiring
habits, your shrinking aversion from scenes of strife and bloodshed,
were recollected by many present: their indignation was loudly uttered,
and a friend of yours expressed his belief that you had quitted the city
some days before the murder was committed. In short, this base and
groundless insinuation of Bartholdy created an impression highly
disadvantageous to him. A few hours later, intelligence arrived that the
diligence in which you had left D. had been attacked by a band of
robbers, while passing through a forest, the day after your departure.
Several of the passengers had been wounded; some killed; others had
saved themselves by flight; and, as you had disappeared, it was now
conjectured that Bartholdy had murdered you, and taken from your person
the knife with which he had afterwards stabbed the young man in the
grove. This presumptive evidence against him was so much strengthened by
his sudden emotion at the sight of the weapon, and by the apparent
probability that the murder of the young officer had succeeded the
robbery of the diligence, that the watch and money found upon the body
failed to create any impression in his favour, as it was conjectured, by
the strongly excited people, that he had been alarmed by passing
footsteps before he had succeeded in rifling his victim. He was put into
close confinement until farther