describe everything exactly as
it took place, constraining my mind not to wander from the task. Where
I make the broken marks that follow here, I leave off for the time, and
put my paper in its hiding-place....

"The carriage left the streets behind, passed the North Barrier, and
emerged upon the country road. At two-thirds of a league from the
Barrier--I did not estimate the distance at that time, but afterwards
when I traversed it--it struck out of the main avenue, and presently
stopped at a solitary house. We all three alighted, and walked, by a
damp soft footpath, in a garden where a neglected fountain had
overflowed to the door of the house. It was not opened immediately, in
answer to the ringing of the bell, and one of my two conductors struck
the man who opened it, with his heavy riding glove, across the face.

"There was nothing in this action to attract my particular attention,
for I had seen common people struck more commonly than dogs. But the
other of the two, being angry likewise, struck the man in like manner
with his arm; the look and bearing of the brothers were then so exactly
alike that I then first perceived them to be twin brothers.

"From the time of our alighting at the outer gate (which we found
locked, and which one of the brothers had opened to admit us, and had
relocked), I had heard cries proceeding from an upper chamber. I was
conducted to this chamber straight, the cries growing louder as we
ascended the stairs, and I found a patient in a high fever of the
brain, lying on a bed.

"The patient was a woman of great beauty, and young; assuredly not much
past twenty. Her hair was torn and ragged, and her arms were bound to
her sides with sashes and handkerchiefs. I noticed that these bonds
were all portions of a gentleman's dress. On one of them, which was a
fringed scarf for a dress of ceremony, I saw the armorial bearings of a
Noble, and the letter E.

"I saw this within the first minute of my contemplation of the patient;
for, in her restless strivings she had turned over on her face on the
edge of the bed, had drawn the end of the scarf into her mouth, and was
in danger of suffocation. My first act was to put out my hand to
relieve her breathing; and, in moving the scarf aside, the embroidery
in the corner caught my sight.

"I turned her gently over, placed my hands upon her breast to calm her
and keep her down, and looked into her face. Her eyes were dilated and
wild, and