y a threatening shadow in
their hearts even under the full sunshine. Before this, the manager
learned for the first time, what was the source of the letters. The
blessed doctrine of intrinsic certainty, however, which has before now
done duty in far graver controversy, prevented him from inquiring as to
the purity of the source.

The toils were rapidly enclosing both the impostor and the dupes. He was
put into the box at last (Feb. 21). By the end of the second day, the
torture had become more than he could endure. Some miscalled the scene
dramatic. That is hardly the right name for the merciless hunt of an
abject fellow-creature through the doublings and windings of a thousand
lies. The breath of the hounds was on him, and he could bear the chase no
longer. After proceedings not worth narrating, except that he made a
confession and then committed his last perjury, he disappeared. The police
traced him to Madrid. When they entered his room with their warrant (March
1), he shot himself dead. They found on his corpse the scapulary worn by
devout catholics as a visible badge and token of allegiance to the
heavenly powers. So in the ghastliest wreck of life, men still hope and
seek for some mysterious cleansing of the soul that shall repair all.

This damning experience was a sharp mortification to the government, who
had been throughout energetic confederates in the attack. Though it did
not come at once formally into debate, it exhilarated the opposition, and
Mr. Gladstone himself was in great spirits, mingled with intense
indignation and genuine sympathy for Mr. Parnell as a man who had suffered
an odious wrong.

VI

The report of the commission was made to the crown on February 13, 1890.
It reached the House of Commons about ten o'clock the same evening. The
scene was curious,--the various speakers droning away in a House otherwise
profoundly silent, and every member on every bench, including high
ministers of state, plunged deep and eager into the blue-book. The general
impression was that the findings amounted to acquittal, and everybody went
home in considerable excitement at this final explosion of the damaged
blunderbuss. The next day Mr. Gladstone had a meeting with the lawyers in
the case, and was keen for action in one form or another; but on the whole
it was agreed that the government should be left to take the initiative.

The report was discussed in both Houses, and strong speeches were made on
bot