of sickness which had
quickly followed.

A legal inquiry was next demanded by the roused public, upon which such
strong evidence appeared as to render the exhumation of the body
necessary: the contents of the stomach were yet in a condition to admit
of chemical analyzation, and the exhibition of a large portion of
arsenic was by these means proven past doubt.

The unconscious senhor--with whom, during this part of the process, they
had prevented the miserable woman holding any communication--was
meantime busily prosecuting his affairs, whatever they were, amidst the
gaieties of Washington. One night, upon his return from a public ball,
he was arrested by an officer who had just reached his quarters with a
criminal warrant, taken back to the scene of his ingratitude, and,
together with the partner of his crime, put upon trial for the murder of
his benefactor.

The guilt of both parties was established, I believe, beyond a doubt;
but some legal loophole was found by which the woman was permitted to
elude the capital punishment, and condemned to live. The ungrateful
guest was sentenced to be hanged: shortly before the time of execution
he made full confession of his having planned and instigated the
poisoning of his unsuspecting host, and died the death of an assassin.

Here is a suite of horrors, plainly and briefly set down, sufficient to
supply stuff for any murder-loving three-volume novelist; yet is there
one other, and that not least, to be added; for it appeared in the
progress of the trial, and time in the ordinary course confirmed this
evidence, that the poor child, the daughter of the murderess, had fallen
a victim to the lust of this devil, Mina.

The fate of the girl and her infant I could not rightly learn; all that
was known, indeed, being her removal to some distant part of the
continent. The mother, it was believed, yet resided within the walls her
guilt has made for ever infamous.

The house is always pointed out to the passing stranger, and was, when I
saw it, no unfit monument of its owner's crime, and the curse which so
quickly followed on it. Its fences were thrown down, its outhouses in
ruin, the paths about it overgrown with filthy weeds; and the latticed
window-shutters, once gay as green paint could make them, now dirty and
broken, were left to swing loose from every wall. Still, evidences of
its being inhabited were exhibited about the yard, where a dog and a few
fowls lay basking; and sus