his fate, widely disproportioned to his claims upon real
regard.

The manner of his death still remained a profound mystery. The verdict
of the coroner's jury was simply to the effect that "he had died of
wounds inflicted by a person or persons unknown," but without an attempt
at explanation. The witnesses examined deposed to very little more
than the state in which the body was found, and the prints of footsteps
discovered in its vicinity. These, indeed, and other marks about the
spot seemed to indicate that a struggle had taken place; but a strange
and unaccountable apathy prevailed as to all investigation, and the
public was left to the very vaguest of speculations as they appeared
from time to time in the columns of the newspapers.

Amongst those who accompanied Rutledge into the street there was a
singular discrepancy of opinion, some averring that they heard him
called on by his name, and others equally positive in asserting that the
provocation was uttered only in the emphatic monosyllable, "a lie." They
were all men of standing and position in the world; they were persons
of indisputable honor; and yet, strange to say, upon a simple matter of
fact which had occupied but a few seconds, they could not be brought
to anything like agreement. The most positive of all in maintaining his
opinion was a Colonel Vereker, who persisted in alleging that he stood
side by side with Rutledge the whole time he was speaking; that he could
swear not only to the words used by the unknown speaker, but that he
would go so far as to say, that such was the impression made upon his
senses that he could detect the voice were he ever to hear it again.

This assertion, at first uttered in the small circle of intimacy, at
last grew to be talked of abroad, and many were of opinion it would
one day or other give the clew to this mysterious affair. As to Vereker
himself, he felt that he was to a certain extent pledged to the proof
of what he had maintained so persistently. His opinions had gained
currency, and were discussed by the press, which, in the dearth of
other topics of interest, devoted a large portion of their columns to
commentary on this event.

Any one now looking back to the pages of the Dublin "Express" or
"Falkner" of that date will scarcely fail to find that each day
contributed some new and ingenious suggestion as to the manner of
Rutledge's death. Some of these were arrayed with great details and the
most minute arrang