up was that
which related to the opening of the casket,--the disappearance of the
contents; the lock had been unquestionably forced. No one, however,
could suppose that some third person had discovered the hiding-place and
forced open the casket to abstract its contents and then rebury it. The
only probable supposition was that the man himself had forced it open,
and, deeming the contents of no value, had thrown them away before he
had hidden the casket and purse, and, in the chaos of his reason, had
forgotten that he had so done. Who could expect that every link in a
madman's tale would be found integral and perfect? In short, little
importance was attached to this solitary doubt. Crowds accompanied me
to my door, when I was set free, in open court, stainless; it was
a triumphal procession. The popularity I had previously enjoyed,
superseded for a moment by so horrible a charge, came back to me tenfold
as with the reaction of generous repentance for a momentary doubt.
One man shared the public favour,--the young man whose acuteness had
delivered me from the peril, and cleared the truth from so awful a
mystery; but Margrave had escaped from congratulation and compliment; he
had gone on a visit to Strahan, at Derval Court.

Alone, at last, in the welcome sanctuary of my own home, what were my
thoughts? Prominent amongst them all was that assertion of the madman,
which had made me shudder when repeated to me: he had been guided to the
murder and to all the subsequent proceedings by the luminous shadow of
the beautiful youth,--the Scin-Laeca to which I had pledged myself. If
Sir Philip Derval could be believed, Margrave was possessed of powers,
derived from fragmentary recollections of a knowledge acquired in a
former state of being, which would render his remorseless intelligence
infinitely dire and frustrate the endeavours of a reason, unassisted
by similar powers, to thwart his designs or bring the law against his
crimes. Had he then the arts that could thus influence the minds of
others to serve his fell purposes, and achieve securely his own evil
ends through agencies that could not be traced home to himself?

But for what conceivable purpose had I been subjected as a victim to
influences as much beyond my control as the Fate or Demoniac Necessity
of a Greek Myth? In the legends of the classic world some august
sufferer is oppressed by powers more than mortal, but with an ethical
if gloomy vindication of his chastis