pon with which he was assailed. The impression
of a bloody hand thrust under the bolster, where it was Sir Wynston's
habit to place his purse and watch, when making his arrangements for the
night, supplied the motive of this otherwise unaccountable atrocity.

After some brief consultation, the jury agreed upon a verdict of willful
murder against John Merton, a finding of which the coroner expressed his
entire approbation.

Marston, as a justice of the peace, had informations, embodying the
principal part of the evidence given before the coroner, sworn against
Merton, and transmitted a copy of them to the Home Office. A reward for
the apprehension of the culprit was forthwith offered, but for some
months without effect.

Marston had, in the interval, written to several of Sir Wynston's many
relations, announcing the catastrophe, and requesting that steps might
immediately be taken to have the body removed. Meanwhile undertakers were
busy in the chamber of death. The corpse was enclosed in lead, and that
again in cedar, and a great oak shell, covered with crimson cloth and
goldheaded nails, and with a gilt plate, recording the age, title, &c.
&c., of the deceased, was screwed down firmly over all.

Nearly a fortnight elapsed before any reply to Marston's letters was
received. A short epistle at last arrived from Lord H----, the late Sir
Wynston's uncle, deeply regretting the "sad and inexplicable occurrence,"
and adding, that the will, which, on receipt of the "distressing
intelligence," was immediately opened and read, contained no direction
whatever respecting the sepulture of the deceased, which had therefore
better be completed as modestly and expeditiously as possible, in the
neighborhood; and, in conclusion, he directed that the accounts of the
undertakers, &c., employed upon the melancholy occasion, might be sent in
to Mr. Skelton, who had kindly undertaken to leave London without any
delay, for the purpose of completing these last arrangements, and who
would, in any matter of business connected with the deceased, represent
him, Lord H----, as executor of the late baronet.

This letter was followed, in a day or two, by the arrival of Skelton, a
well-dressed, languid, impertinent London tuft-hunter, a good deal faded,
with a somewhat sallow and puffy face, charged with a pleasant
combination at once of meanness, insolence, and sensuality--just such a
person as Sir Wynston's parasite might have been expected to p