ed by a footpath from the elm, he
observed that the turf-seat was unoccupied. Supposing, from the total
silence, that the hostile youths had quitted the grove, he emerged from
the evergreens with confidence, and approached the tree, but recoiled in
sudden horror, as he almost stepped upon the body of one of his rivals,
who lay dead on his back, while the blood was issuing in torrents from a
wound in his throat, inflicted by the knife of Bartholdy, the
remarkable handle of which protruded from the deep incision. His blood
froze as he gazed on this sad spectacle; and covering his face with his
hands, he stood for some moments over the body in stolid and sickening
horror. Soon, however, his strong antipathy to scenes of bloodshed and
violence impelled him to rush, with headlong precipitation, from the
fatal spot. Leaving his knife in the wound, he darted forward through
the wood, and fortunately without meeting any one within or near it.
When he reached the high-road, the darkness had so much increased as to
render his features undistinguishable to the passengers, and, running
towards the city, he soon reached the public promenade without the
barriers, where he threw himself upon a bench, exhausted with terror and
fatigue. Looking fearfully around him through the darkness, he
endeavoured to collect his reasoning faculties, and immediately the
recollection that he had left his knife in the throat of the murdered
officer flashed upon him. With this fatal weapon were connected many old
associations, which now crowded with sickening potency upon his memory.
Again he saw the sarcastic grin with which his friend had said, "What we
most carefully shun, is most likely to befall us." And would not the
remarkable knife of Bartholdy too probably verify the malignant prophecy
of its owner? Forgetful of the improbability that any one had seen in
his possession a knife which, before that evening, he had never used,
his senses yielded to an irresistible conviction, that this instrument
of another's guilt would betray and lead him to the scaffold. Immediate
flight was the only resource which presented itself to his bewildered
judgment; and, rising from the bench, he hastened to his lodgings, to
complete his preparations for departure the following morning. After a
sleepless night, during which he started at every sound with
apprehension of a nocturnal visit from the police, he proceeded at
daybreak, with a heavy heart, to the post-house, wh