sense!" said Mr. Rockharrt.

"Nonsense, of course," assented the duke. "I did not speak of the ring
on account of its supposed magic power, but because it was so peculiar a
jewel that it would be impossible to mistake it for any other ring, or
any other ring for itself; and to lead up to the statement that its
discovery enabled me to identify the Mexican Indian woman with the
maniac who murdered my uncle, as you will see very soon. When my uncle
took leave of us, my father, noticing the family talisman--which, by the
way, was picked up by our ancestor, Raoul-de-Netherbie, the great
Crusader, on the battle field of Acre, and was said to have belonged to
an Eastern magician, and has remained an heirloom with the head of our
family ever since--inquired of his brother whether he was going to wear
that outre jewel in open view upon his finger. My uncle answered that he
was; and half laughing, and wholly incredulous, he added:

"'You know, Hugh, that this stone is a talisman against shipwreck,
fires, floods, robbery, murder, illness, and all the perils by land or
by sea, and all the ills that flesh is heir to. While I wear this ring I
expect to be safe from the evils of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
So it shall never leave my living hand while I am away; but it shall
bring me home safe to live to a patriarchal age and then die peacefully
in my bed, with my children and children's children of many generations
weeping and wailing around me.'

"These or words to this effect he was speaking, while I, standing by the
chair in which he sat, toyed with his hand, and gazed curiously upon the
talismanic jewel, and got into my mind an impression of it that never
was lost. My uncle soon after left the house, and we never saw him alive
again."

"He was the victim of this mad woman?"

"I know it. News was slow in those days. We seldom heard from my uncle.
His letters were but the mark of the cities he stopped at. We had one
letter from Boston; a month later one from New York; a fortnight later,
perhaps--for I only remember these matters by hearing them talked over
by my parents--from Philadelphia; later still, and later, Baltimore,
Washington, Nashville, New Orleans, and so on as he journeyed southward.
Then came a long interval, during which we heard nothing from him, while
all his family suffered the deepest anxiety, fearing that he had fallen
a victim to the terrible fever that was then desolating the Crescent
City. Then at