d after wandering about
in vain, and seeing no one at that late hour of night of whom he could
ask the way, lie had crept under a portico and slept for two or three
hours. Waking towards the dawn, he had then got up, and again sought to
find his way to the inn, when he saw, in a narrow street before him,
two men, one of whom he recognized as the taller of the two to whose
conversation he had listened under the arch; the other he did not
recognize at the moment. The taller man seemed angry and agitated, and
he heard him say, "The casket; I will have it." There then seemed to be
a struggle between these two persons, when the taller one struck down
the shorter, knelt on his breast, and he caught distinctly the gleam of
some steel instrument. That he was so frightened that he could not stir
from the place, and that though he cried out, he believed his voice was
not heard. He then saw the taller man rise, the other resting on the
pavement motionless; and a minute or so afterwards beheld policemen
coming to the place, on which he, the witness, walked away. He did not
know that a murder had been committed; it might be only an assault; it
was no business of his, he was a stranger. He thought it best not to
interfere, the police having cognizance of the affair. He found out his
inn; for the next few days he was absent from L---- in search of his
relations, who had left the town, many years ago, to fix their residence
in one of the neighbouring villages.

He was, however, disappointed; none of these relations now survived. He
had now returned to L----, heard of the murder, was in doubt what to
do, might get himself into trouble if, a mere stranger, he gave
an unsupported testimony. But, on the day before the evidence was
volunteered, as he was lounging in the streets, he had seen a gentleman
pass by on horseback, in whom he immediately recognized the man who,
in his belief, was the murderer of Sir Philip Derval. He inquired of a
bystander the name of the gentleman; the answer was "Dr. Fenwick." That,
the rest of the day, he felt much disturbed in his mind, not liking to
volunteer such a charge against a man of apparent respectability and
station; but that his conscience would not let him sleep that night,
and he had resolved at morning to go to the magistrate and make a clean
breast of it.

The story was in itself so improbable that any other magistrate but
Mr. Vigors would perhaps have dismissed it in contempt. But Mr. Vigors,