ls. The casket lay locked beside him. I took it up, and
placed it within my portmanteau; and, not daring to interfere with the
course of that sorrow, the cause of which he had not confided to me, I
stole noiselessly from the room.

When next I saw him he appeared to be somewhat better; but the feeble
powers of life had received a severe shock, and his haggard and broken
look shewed how much a few hours had hastened the approach of death.
That evening he never once alluded to the subject which had agitated
him, and bade me "Good night" earlier than usual, wishing to relieve his
fatigue by sleep.--I never saw him after.

I had scarcely composed myself to sleep, my mind full of the events of
the day, when an express arrived from an English nobleman, who had been
my most influential and steadiest friend, requiring me immediately to
set out for Naples, to make a picture of his only daughter ere her body
was committed to the earth. She had died of the malaria, and her funeral
could not be long delayed. I immediately set out, taking with me the
portmanteau that contained the casket, and such requisites for painting
as I could hurriedly collect. With all my anxiety to return to my old
companion, I was unable to leave Naples before the tenth day; I then
turned my face homewards, with a heart beating with anxiety, lest his
death should have taken place in my absence. The diligence in which
I travelled was attacked near Calvi by Banditti. Several of the
passengers, being well armed, made resistance, and a dreadful conflict
took place. Severely wounded in the side with a stiletto, I remained for
dead upon the ground, and lost all remembrance of every thing till the
moment I discovered myself a patient in the public hospital of Naples.

Several weeks of fever and delirium had passed over me, and I lay now
weak and powerless. By degrees my strength was restored, and as I lay,
one day, meditating a speedy departure from the hospital, the intendant
of the police came to inform me that several articles of value,
contained in a portmanteau bearing my initials, had been discovered near
the scene of the late encounter, where they had probably been dropped
by the robbers in their flight, and that, on my identifying and claiming
them as mine they should be restored to me. Among other things he
mentioned the ebony casket.

I dared not ask if it were opened, lest my agitation might occasion
surprise or suspicion, and promised to inspect the