in India!"

The gentleman so strangely addressed had exchanged significant glances
during the delivery of this incoherent speech; and, quite confirmed in
their previous impression, Mr. Hardyman, as their spokesman, interrupted
the speaker, to inform him that _he_ was the suspected assassin of his
aunt! The accusing sentences had hardly passed the solicitor's lips, when
the furious young man sprang towards him with the bound of a tiger, and
at one blow prostrated him on the floor. He was immediately seized by the
two medical gentlemen, and help having been summoned, he was with much
difficulty secured, and placed in strict confinement, to await the result
of the next day's inquiry.

The examination of the body disclosed the terrible fact, that the
deceased lady had perished by _acetate of morphine_; thus verifying the
sagacious guess of Dr. Archer. A minute search was immediately made
throughout Mr. Frederick Everett's apartments, and behind one of the
drawers of a cabinet in his bedroom--at the back of the shelf or
partition upon which the drawer rested, and of course completely hidden
by the drawer itself when in its place--was found a flat tin flask,
fluted on the outside, and closed with a screw stopper: it was loosely
enveloped in a sheet of brown paper, directed "--Everett, Esq., Woodlands
Manor-House, Yorkshire;" and upon close examination, a small quantity of
white powder, which proved to be _acetate of morphine_, was found in the
flask. Suspicion of young Everett's guilt now became conviction; and, as
if to confirm beyond all doubt the soundness of the chain of
circumstantial evidence in which he was immeshed, the butler, John
Darby, an aged and trusty servant of the late Mrs. Fitzhugh, made on the
next day the following deposition before the magistrates:--

"He had taken in, two days before his late mistress was seized with her
fatal illness, a small brown paper parcel which had been brought by coach
from London, and for which 2s. 10d carriage was charged and paid. The
paper found in Mr. Frederick Everett's cabinet was, he could positively
swear, from the date and figures marked on it, and the handwriting, the
paper wrapper of that parcel. He had given it to young Mr. Everett, who
happened to be in the library at the time. About five minutes afterwards,
he had occasion to return to the library, to inform him that some
fishing-tackle he had ordered was sent home. The door was ajar; and Mr.
Frederick did not at