ale so improbable, that a man
of my reputed talent could not have hazarded it if in his sound
senses. I saw the web that had thus been spread around me by hostile
prepossessions and ignorant gossip: how could the arts of Margrave
scatter that web to the winds? I knew not, but I felt confidence in his
promise and his power. Still, so great had been my alarm for Lilian,
that the hope of clearing my own innocence was almost lost in my joy
that Margrave, at least, was no longer in her presence, and that I had
received his pledge to quit the town in which she lived.

Thus, hours rolled on hours, till, I think, on the third day from that
night in which I had last beheld the mysterious Shadow, my door
was hastily thrown open, a confused crowd presented itself at the
threshold,--the governor of the prison, the police superintendent,
Mr. Stanton, and other familiar faces shut out from me since my
imprisonment. I knew at the first glance that I was no longer an outlaw
beyond the pale of human friendship. And proudly, sternly, as I had
supported myself hitherto in solitude and suspense, when I felt warm
hands clasping mine, heard joyous voices proffering congratulations, saw
in the eyes of all that my innocence had been cleared, the revulsion of
emotion was too strong for me,--the room reeled on my sight, I fainted.
I pass, as quickly as I can, over the explanations that crowded on me
when I recovered, and that were publicly given in evidence in court next
morning. I had owed all to Margrave. It seems that he had construed
to my favour the very supposition which had been bruited abroad to my
prejudice. "For," said he, "it is conjectured that Fenwick committed the
crime of which he is accused in the impulse of a disordered reason. That
conjecture is based upon the probability that a madman alone could have
committed a crime without adequate motive. But it seems quite clear that
the accused is not mad; and I see cause to suspect that the accuser is."
Grounding this assumption on the current reports of the witness's
manner and bearing since he had been placed under official surveillance,
Margrave had commissioned the policeman Waby to make inquiries in
the village to which the accuser asserted he had gone in quest of his
relations, and Waby had there found persons who remembered to have heard
that the two brothers named Walls lived less by the gains of the petty
shop which they kept than by the proceeds of some property consigned to