d a loud
cry, and pointing to the bloody cudgel which still lay at the
magistrate's feet, exclaimed--

"I did it with that! I did it with that!" and fell back in a fit.

It would be easy to lengthen out our historiette into one of
circumstantial evidence, trial, condemnation, and ultimate discovery;
but we have preferred telling it as it really happened. On the person of
David Bain were found a pocket-book and purse, recognized as the
property of the late Mr. Bruce, and containing bank-notes and bills to a
considerable amount; the sight of which, in the possession of his
lodger, had evoked the cupidity of the bell-man. He made a full
confession, and in due time suffered the penalty due to his offence.
Meanwhile the minister, in the thankfulness of his soul to find his
nephew guiltless, embraced him tenderly, and freely permitted that
courtship to proceed between his daughter and him, which he had before
so strenuously opposed.

One circumstance still remained a mystery, undeveloped to all save
Barbara's aunt, Percival, and the worthy magistrate,--by whose advice,
indeed, it was concealed from the minister; who, to his dying day,
confidently believed that the paper he had found in his Bible had been
placed there by supernatural interposition. But the hand of the dead had
nothing to do with it, as we mean to explain.

On the evening of the murder, Barbara Comyn sallied forth to meet her
cousin, leaving Mr. Bruce and her father discussing punch and polemics.
She was later than usual, and as she sped along, she became aware of the
approach from Aberdeen of an individual, whom she could not avoid
meeting if she proceeded direct to the tryst. She therefore stole into a
different track, thinking to make a circuit which would occupy the time
the stranger might take in passing the copse of hazels; but,
unfortunately (or fortunately, was it?), she met a poor woman, the wife
of a neighboring peasant, who was on her way to the manse to implore
some black currant jelly for a child suffering from sore throat. The
call of distress was never disregarded by Barbara, and she flew back to
the manse, procured the jelly, and giving it to the woman, hastened
amidst falling rain to the trysting-place. As she was about to round the
point which hid the Nut-hole from view, she heard the sounds of
struggling feet and wrestling arms; and, regardless of danger to herself
in her fears for Percival, she forced her way through some bushes, and
be