t I should live to write that Isora was--no
more!

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER I.

A RE-ENTRANCE INTO LIFE THROUGH THE EBON GATE, AFFLICTION.

MONTHS passed away before my senses returned to me. I rose from the bed
of suffering and of madness calm, collected, immovable,--altered, but
tranquil. All the vigilance of justice had been employed to discover the
murderers, but in vain. The packet was gone; and directly I, who alone
was able to do so, recovered enough to state the loss of that document,
suspicion naturally rested on Gerald, as on one whom that loss
essentially benefited. He came publicly forward to anticipate inquiry.
He proved that he had not stirred from home during the whole week in
which the event had occurred. That seemed likely enough to others; it is
the tools that work, not the instigator,--the bravo, not the employer;
but I, who saw in him not only the robber, but that fearful rival who
had long threatened Isora that my bridals should be stained with blood,
was somewhat staggered by the undeniable proofs of his absence from the
scene of that night; and I was still more bewildered in conjecture
by remembering that, so far as their disguises and my own hurried and
confused observation could allow me to judge, the person of neither
villain, still less that of Isora's murderer, corresponded with the
proportions and height of Gerald. Still, however, whether mediately
or immediately--whether as the executor or the designer--not a doubt
remained on my mind that against his head was justice due. I directed
inquiry towards Montreuil: he was abroad at the time of my recovery;
but, immediately on his return, he came forward boldly and at once to
meet and even to court the inquiry I had instituted; he did more,--he
demanded on what ground, besides my own word, it rested that this packet
had ever been in my possession; and, to my surprise and perplexity,
it was utterly impossible to produce the smallest trace of Mr. Marie
Oswald. His half-brother, the attorney, had died, it is true, just
before the event of that night; and it was also true that he had seen
Marie on his death-bed; but no other corroboration of my story could
be substantiated, and no other information of the man obtained; and the
partisans of Gerald were not slow in hinting at the great interest I had
in forging a tale respecting a will, about the authenticity of which I
was at law.

The robbers had entered the house by a back-door, which was f