belief in her grandfather's innocence became more strongly
impressed upon me, and I formed the purpose, almost hopeless though it
seemed, of establishing the truth of this belief. The idea grew upon me.
I found myself getting nervous, and for the sake of my health I came
here two years ago to find relaxation in trout fishing and the study of
nature."

We had walked during the relation of my friend's narrative along the
road often travelled by me before, and which led to the three shattered
elms and the old cellar. We sat down beneath the shade of the trees once
more to rest, and as we did so Gault took from his pocket the old knife
which two years before had been discovered in the grass-grown cellar.

"There," said he, holding it before my eyes, "there is the name on the
handle that you read for the first time,--'Samuel Wickham,'--and you can
imagine my feelings when I tell you that that was the name of my
great-grandfather. When you told me that Deacon Thompson had a record of
this long past tragedy you doubtless remember the intense eagerness with
which I hastened to find him.

"In the diary was distinctly recorded the burning of the house, March 4,
1795. If Samuel Wickham was guilty of the crime it was utterly
impossible that he should have been out of England at that time. From
that moment my cherished belief became a settled conviction. My means
were limited, but I resolved to visit England at once, and, if possible,
substantiate the evidence found so unexpectedly under these elms; not
that I expected to obtain reversal of a sentence pronounced in a court
of law over eighty years ago, but Cecelia Crabshaw should know that my
blood was not tainted by an ancestor's crime. I can assure you that I
thought much more than I slept that night.

"The next day, as you know, I went back to Boston, and a month later was
in England. I went directly to S----, and there found the old mansion,
once the rightful property of my great-grandfather. I found proof that
he sailed for New York, January 23, 1795. But that was not all. The old
Wickham mansion had stood for years unoccupied. I learned that after its
forfeiture to the crown the whole estate had been granted for life as a
reward to the young officer who had brought to the government the
evidence of its former owner's treason. By him it was occupied for some
thirty years; then he suddenly disappeared. After that the estate was
sold to an eccentric and wealthy bachelor, who b