times it appeared to him in the form of a rat;
sometimes even of a leaf, or a fragment of wood, or a rusty nail; but
that his Master's voice always came to him distinctly, whatever shape he
appeared in; only, he said, with an air of great importance, his Master,
this time, had graciously condescended, ever since he left the asylum,
to communicate with him in a much more pleasing and imposing aspect than
he had ever done before,--in the form of a beautiful youth, or, rather,
like a bright rose-coloured shadow, in which the features of a young
man were visible, and that he had heard the voice more distinctly than
usual, though in a milder tone, and seeming to come to him from a great
distance.

After these revelations the man became suddenly disturbed. He shook from
limb to limb, he seemed convulsed with terror; he cried out that he had
betrayed the secret of his Master, who had warned him not to describe
his appearance and mode of communication, or he would surrender his
servant to the tormentors. Then the maniac's terror gave way to fury;
his more direful propensity made itself declared; he sprang into the
midst of his frightened listeners, seized Mr. Vigors by the throat, and
would have strangled him but for the prompt rush of the superintendent
and his satellites. Foaming at the mouth, and horribly raving, he was
then manacled, a strait-waistcoat thrust upon him, and the group so
left him in charge of his captors. Inquiries were immediately directed
towards such circumstantial evidence as might corroborate the details he
had so minutely set forth. The purse, recognized as Sir Philip's, by the
valet of the deceased, was found buried under the wych-elm. A policeman
despatched, express, to the town in which the maniac declared the knife
to have been purchased, brought back word that a cutler in the place
remembered perfectly to have sold such a knife to a seafaring man, and
identified the instrument when it was shown to him. From the chink of a
door ajar, in the wall opposite my sash-window, a maid-servant, watching
for her sweetheart (a journeyman carpenter, who habitually passed that
way on going home to dine), had, though unobserved by the murderer, seen
him come out of my window at a time that corresponded with the dates of
his own story, though she had thought nothing of it at the moment. He
might be a patient, or have called on business; she did not know that
I was from home. The only point of importance not cleared