or the last time, and that since then I
have had no manner of communication from him. But now let me enquire
what leads you and the rest of the Town-Council to make such enquiries
about the absent one who--whatever his offences may be--has at least
not given his native town any cause for complaint for a space of nine
years?"

The sergeant coughed again, and resumed after a pause, during which he
was evidently in search of the most appropriate words possible. "Hear
me out patiently, my worthy friend and relative, and do not be startled
if my communication should sound strange and alarming. Up to the
present time it is only a surmise which may--God grant it!--prove to be
entirely unfounded. You remember the night on which the train-band
intruded upon you, and the disorderly conduct on the island, respecting
which I waited upon you the following day, bearing the apologies of the
Council. The tavern which caused you so much annoyance, was closed at
once, and the scene of much nightly misdemeanour removed. Neither since
that night had any trace of the chief offenders been found, so that I
began to suspect the watchmen must have been bewildered with new wine,
and seen phantoms. But last evening, just as we were breaking up, a
young female was brought before us, who had gone to the sexton of St.
Ursula to request him to give private burial to a corpse then in her
room, since she feared--the fatal wound having been received in a
brawl--that she might else as a stranger in the place be held in some
way amenable to the law. The little money the girl possessed--she
seemed to be no better than a French courtesan, and could scarcely put
ten German words together--she had offered the sexton as a bribe for
secrecy, but when he, as his duty was, gave information of the death,
and took her with him to the Court, she seemed inspired with sudden
courage, and being thoroughly cross-examined by us, was yet able to
establish her innocence in this tragic matter. The dead man, who had
been her lover and brought her with him from Lyons, had on the night of
the storm picked a quarrel on the island with an unknown youth, and had
been stabbed by the latter during a struggle on the bridge. When the
train-band was seen approaching, she had just had time with the help of
two of their travelling companions, to get the unconscious man into a
boat, and to bring him to the obscure inn where they had arrived on the
previous day. The two other men seeing t