o Paris, and the police of that capital
entered upon the search with most praiseworthy zeal. But the number
of life-preservers which had been sold altogether baffled them. It
seemed that nothing was so common as that gentlemen should walk about
with bludgeons in their pockets covered with leathern thongs. A young
woman and an old man who thought that they could recollect something
of a special sale were brought over,--and saw the splendour of London
under very favourable circumstances;--but when confronted with Mr.
Emilius, neither could venture to identify him. A large sum of money
was expended,--no doubt justified by the high position which poor Mr.
Bonteen had filled in the counsels of the nation; but it was expended
in vain. Mr. Bonteen had been murdered in the streets at the West End
of London. The murderer was known to everybody. He had been seen a
minute or two before the murder. The motive which had induced the
crime was apparent. The weapon with which it had been perpetrated had
been found. The murderer's disguise had been discovered. The cunning
with which he had endeavoured to prove that he was in bed at home
had been unravelled, and the criminal purpose of his cunning made
altogether manifest. Every man's eye could see the whole thing from
the moment in which the murderer crept out of Mrs. Meager's house
with Mr. Meager's coat upon his shoulders and the life-preserver in
his pocket, till he was seen by Lord Fawn hurrying out of the mews
to his prey. The blows from the bludgeon could be counted. The very
moment in which they had been struck had been ascertained. His very
act in hurling the weapon over the wall was all but seen. And yet
nothing could be done. "It is a very dangerous thing hanging a man on
circumstantial evidence," said Sir Gregory Grogram, who, a couple of
months since, had felt almost sure that his honourable friend Phineas
Finn would have to be hung on circumstantial evidence. The police
and magistrates and lawyers all agreed that it would be useless, and
indeed wrong, to send the case before a jury. But there had been
quite sufficient evidence against Phineas Finn!

In the meantime the trial for bigamy proceeded in order that poor
little Lizzie Eustace might be freed from the incubus which afflicted
her. Before the end of July she was made once more a free woman, and
the Rev. Joseph Emilius,--under which name it was thought proper that
he should be tried,--was convicted and sentenced to pen