le and Laurence, it was certainly the opinion of the majority of
those who had been present that the blow had been struck by the hand
of Phineas Finn. And perhaps the worst aspect of it all was that
there had been not simply a blow,--but blows. The constables had
declared that the murdered man had been struck thrice about the head,
and that the fatal stroke had been given on the side of his head
after the man's hat had been knocked off. That Finn should have
followed his enemy through the street, after such words as he had
spoken, with the view of having the quarrel out in some shape,
did not seem to be very improbable to any of them except Lord
Cantrip;--and then had there been a scuffle, out in the open path, at
the spot at which the angry man might have overtaken his adversary,
it was not incredible to them that he should have drawn even such a
weapon as a life-preserver from his pocket. But, in the case as it
had occurred, a spot peculiarly traitorous had been selected, and the
attack had too probably been made from behind. As yet there was no
evidence that the murderer had himself encountered any ill-usage. And
Finn, if he was the murderer, must, from the time he was standing at
the club door, have contemplated a traitorous, dastardly attack. He
must have counted his moments;--have returned slyly in the dark to
the corner of the street which he had once passed;--have muffled his
face in his coat;--and have then laid wait in a spot to which an
honest man at night would hardly trust himself with honest purposes.
"I look upon it as quite out of the question," said Lord Cantrip,
when the three Ministers were left alone. Now Lord Cantrip had served
for many months in the same office as Phineas Finn.

"You are simply putting your own opinion of the man against the
facts," said Mr. Gresham. "But facts always convince, and another
man's opinion rarely convinces."

"I'm not sure that we know the facts yet," said the Duke.

"Of course we are speaking of them as far as they have been told to
us. As far as they go,--unless they can be upset and shown not to be
facts,--I fear they would be conclusive to me on a jury."

"Do you mean that you have heard enough to condemn him?" asked Lord
Cantrip.

"Remember what we have heard. The murdered man had two enemies."

"He may have had a third."

"Or ten; but we have heard of but two."

"He may have been attacked for his money," said the Duke. "But
neither his money nor his wa