in a further resonance. Would that we could bring him to
account; but he has already gone to it, if justice lies at the root
of things, as all men pray, and you and I believe, Sir Walter. An
interesting reflection: How many suffer, if they do not actually perish,
from the sins of the dead? Not only the sins of our father are visited
upon us, but, if we could trace the infliction, the crimes of countless
dead men accomplished long before we were born into this suffering
world. I speak in a parable, but this is literal, actual. Dead men
committed these murders, and left this legacy of woe."

Signor Mannetti stroked the lifeless spaniel.

"When we were left alone I picked him up and set him on the bed. He did
not waken, and I knew that he would never waken again. Now let us look
at this noble bed, if you please. Here is the link, you see, without
which so much that I told you yesterday must have sounded no more than
the idle chatter of an old man. Come and use your eyes. Ah, if only
people had used their eyes sooner!"

They followed him, and he pointed to a framework of carved wood that
connected the four posts.

"What is this on the frieze running above the capitals of the little
Ionic pillars?"

"The papal crown and keys," said Mary.

"Good! Now regard the other side."

"A coat of arms--a golden bull on a red ground--why, father, that was
what puzzled you at Florence!"

"Surely it was. The thing stuck in my memory, yet I could not remember
where I had seen it before."

Signor Mannetti prepared for his effect, then made it.

"The arms of the Borgia! The arms of the Spanish Pope, Alexander VI. of
unholy memory. So all is told, and we will soon go to bed. Having marked
them this morning, you will see how readily I was led into the heart of
the secret. It only needed some such certain sign. And everything that
had happened was consonant with this explanation. The first to suffer
puzzled me; but I solved that problem, too. You shall hear how each
woman and each man was slain. Look at this mattress upholstered in
satin--there lies the unsleeping thing that brings sleep so quickly to
others! I guessed it this morning; I proved it to-night. At seventeen
minutes past eight Prince was dead; but not until I awoke, near two
o'clock, did I dare approach him. For how did he die? The moment the
heat of his ancient body penetrated the mattress under him, it released
its awful venom. He stretched himself, curled up again, and