the dismay and confusion which the butler had
described. He re-sealed the parcel, and placed it in his reputed father's
dressing-room; and thought little more of the matter, till, on entering
his aunt's bedroom on the first evening of her illness, he beheld Everett
pour a small portion of white powder from the tin flask into the bottle
containing his aunt's medicine. The terrible truth at once flashed upon
him. A fierce altercation immediately ensued in the father's
dressing-room, whither Frederick followed him. Everett persisted that the
powder was a celebrated Eastern medicament, which would save, if anything
could, his aunt's life. The young man was not of course deceived by this
shallow falsehood, and from that moment administered the medicine to the
patient with his own hands, and kept the bottles which contained it
locked up in his cabinet. "On the very morning of my aunt's death, I
surprised him shutting and locking one of my cabinet drawers. So
dumbfounded was I with horror and dismay at the sight, that he left the
room by a side-door without observing me. You have now the key to my
conduct. I loathed to look upon the murderer; but I would have died a
thousand deaths rather than attempt to save my own life by the sacrifice
of a father's--how guilty soever he might be."

Furnished with this explanation, and the affidavit of Edwards, I waited
upon the judge, and obtained not only a respite for the prisoner, but a
warrant for the arrest of Captain Everett.

It was a busy evening. Edwards was despatched to London in the friendly
custody of an intelligent officer, to secure the person of the
foreign-looking vender of subtle poisons; and Mr. Sharpe, with two
constables, set off in a postchaise for Woodlands Manor-House. It was
late when they arrived there, and the servants informed them that Captain
Everett had already retired. They of course insisted upon seeing him; and
he presently appeared, wrapped in a dressing-gown, and haughtily demanded
their business with him at such an hour. The answer smote him as with a
thunderbolt, and he staggered backwards, till arrested by the wall of the
apartment, and then sank feebly, nervelessly, into a chair. Eagerly,
after a pause, he questioned the intruders upon the nature of the
evidence against him. Mr. Sharpe briefly replied that Edwards was in
custody, and had revealed everything.

"Is it indeed so?" rejoined Everett, seeming to derive resolution and
fortitude from the v