sitions and how far, with safety to the object ultimately proposed, severity may be pushed."

And here Blake hinted an advice which it would have been well, as regarded the immediate future, if Sir Miles had thoroughly and cautiously considered and acted upon.

"Fear for me in nothing, my good friend," replied Sir Miles, in a high but self-overrating tone.

"I do not-I shall not-and so good-bye now; my own family and affairs require my presence at home."

"Farewell-one parting word, however; the keeping up, for some time, of every appearance of solemnity and severity is, as you will conceive, most necessary for my plans; and in this view I have again to request your assurance that the soldier left at the door of his chamber may consider himself under my direction for whatever time I shall deem fit."

Blake answered that he would himself repeat to the man the instructions required; and after having once more shaken each other's hands, the friends parted..

Old Martin returned to Sir Miles to say that Mr. James Hutchinson had told him, through the closed door of his bedroom, he would arise and prepare himself to receive his uncle in a few moments. The baronet asked whether Martin had made him aware of what had happened in the house since he retired indisposed to his room early in the night; and the old servant replied that in general terms he had done so. Sir Miles then ascertaining that the medical gentleman who had been in attendance on the poor infant was at present in the library, went thither to seek that individual.

After they had met and spoken for some time, Sir Miles mentioned the shocking report which, on the physician's authority, Fanny had made to him of the cause of her boy's death. "But the poor little soul was agitated then, sir," he continued, "and might have only imagined the thing."

"I certainly whispered to the nurse such suspicions as you allude to-not indeed wishing your daughter-in-law to be the wiser of my opinion."

"And your opinion is established on sure grounds ?—it amounts to certainty ?"

"In my own mind it does; a particular step is, however, necessary to be taken, in order to enable me to arrive at perfect demonstration of the fact."

"I understand you, sir; take that step," said Sir Miles, commanding himself all along into calmness.

The physician said he should only hesitate on account of poor Fanny, to whom a knowledge of the circumstance might occasion, in her present state of nervousness, perhaps a dangerous shock. Sir Miles replied, that with the good doctor's assistance, in commanding her to remain in her bed for the present, he would undertake to keep her quite ignorant of the matter. Upon this undertaking it was resolved to proceed to business at once; and Sir Miles, passing out of the library, returned in a few moments, bearing in his arms the corpse of the little victim; and in another moment, side by side with the

medical gentleman, he was knocking at James Hutchinson's bed-room door.

The visiters heard an inside green-baize door at first opened, and then the unlocking of that at which they stood. It was pushed open towards them, and James Hutchinson, attired in his dressing-gown, and holding a candle in his hand, appeared with a kind of sorrowfullydutiful countenance to attend upon his uncle. His eyes, which had been cast on the ground, were now lifted up, as, stepping forward, he sighed measuredly and profoundly; and his glance fell at once upon the sad burden in Sir Miles's arms, the glare from the candle which himself held striking fully over the object. He shrank backward, shivered for an instant, uttered a short low cry, and, while his eyes and mouth opened widely, turned very pale. Not remotely suspecting the appearance of such a vision upon the very threshold of his door, James Hutchinson, notwithstanding much philosophical steadiness of nerve, was indeed taken by surprise.

His uncle noticed his agitation with a sympathetic sigh and a scornful shaking of his head. The bluff and strong-featured, but most benevolent and acute-minded physician, also looked at him for an instant; his glance, however, was a studious one, and he withdrew it, as if intentionally, before it could have been noticed.

Ay, nephew," said Sir Miles, "well may you show your feelings by your manner; and those feelings are, I am sure, what they always have been, whenever sorrow or suffering in your uncle's family made a claim upon them. But to the point of my present appearance at this unseasonable hour. As old Martin may have informed you, our excellent medical friend has formed terrible suspicions of the cause of the death of the little creature whose corpse I here bring in my arms to your door, and

Suspicions, uncle !" interrupted James, now showing a new kind of emotion, as he rapidly stepped quite backward into his bedroom; "what suspicions?-old Martin? No-he said nothing to me of —yes, I mean-he just very hastily hinted at the matter-but what do you exactly mean, Sir Miles ?"

"James, you shall soon learn," answered the baronet, while the physician stole another note-taking look at James-" you shall soon learn. Allow us to proceed into your study;-there, in the room the most remote from the bustle of the house, we can enter upon our investigation-we may go in ?"

James Hutchinson answered, with much earnest alacrity, although he had not yet quite regained his self-possession, that he would only request his uncle and the medical gentleman to stop one instant where they were, while he entered the study to see that things were not in the way; and he accordingly went into the inner room. They heard him as if employed in pulling about chairs and tables in a hurried manner; then the still-watchful physician thought he heard a key cautiously turned in a lock of a smaller size, and then James reappeared to usher in his visiters."

"This curious old oak table will answer our purpose," said the physician.

Sir Miles laid his sad burden upon it. The operator took out his

case of instruments, and resumed-" It will be necessary that the poor little subject should be held steadily for me-Mr. James Hutchinson, will you do us this service ?"

"Me, doctor?-certainly-by all means; but” He was approaching the table rapidly-he stopped, and went on-talking loudly and fast, while strange, unseasonable smiles twisted through his features-" but shall I own my weakness?—it is a very contemptible one I admit, and yet somehow I have never been able, with any comfort to myself, to touch a dead body;-'twas always so with me, I assure you, doctor; even at sea, where you know there is plenty of that kind of thing after an action; and though I believe no one ever charged me with cowardice while the fight went on, yet, when it was over, I have absolutely turned pale at the sight of a fellow that my own hanger, perhaps, had made a corpse of;-yes, indeed; and the other day, when I just strolled in with a friend, through curiosity, into the dissecting-room of Trinity College, I

"Well sir," interrupted the physician, " we shall not press you any farther-Sir Miles ?"

He turned to the baronet, who immediately attended him.

James Hutchinson fell back to a shaded corner of the room. Conducted by a thoroughly skilful hand, the practical investigation was soon ended.

"Well, I hold our proof now," resumed the physician.

"Poison, then, indeed ?" asked Sir Miles.

"Poison, and indeed; very little of it, to be sure; enough, however-just enough, Sir Miles, for its purpose; it has been administered by no clumsy hand, and no uncalculating head; and it is of the subtlest kind, too, such as a vulgar person would scarce know how to procure-indeed, know the name of."

With an exclamation of bewildered terror, the old baronet sank into a chair.

"And who then can be the poisoner ?"

"Ay, that is the question you have now to decide, Sir Miles; you had better confer with your nephew on the subject."

"James!" cried Sir Miles; and James slowly came to him, now seeming quite calm and collected. The worthy doctor turned off round the study, passingly peering at the back of James's books, and at his handsome astronomical apparatus. The uncle and the nephew entered into consultation. They agreed that there could be but two persons suspected of the inhuman deed of infant murder, namely, the nurse who had attended Fanny during her confinement, and had afterwards taken care of the baby; and Fanny's own maid, who very often was the nurse's companion at the little creature's cradle-side. In fact, no other persons, except indeed the young mother herself, the doctor, and the two individuals now discussing the subject, had had the slightest access to the child's presence since its birth. And both these women had hitherto borne characters remarkable not only for general morality, but for benevolence, and even tenderness. The motive, too, for such a hellish act? Supposing either of the suspected persons to be truly suspected, what could have supplied the wish to deprive of its few-days' life an inoffensive, helpless, prostrate

infant? It was most strange, Sir Miles said; deeply, awfully, fearfully strange; and James Hutchinson feelingly agreed with him that it was so.

Sir Miles called over the doctor to take him into council. All that uncle and nephew had previously said was communicated to him, and his opinion anxiously requested by both. But he seemed cautious of saying anything on the subject, and only spoke a few words in a tone so seemingly light and careless, as to surprise Sir Miles and James Hutchinson. He saw no objection, indeed, to place under immediate constraint the nurse and the lady's maid. Motives were again spoken of, and he remarked, with a bluff smile and a shrug, "Poogh! motives; there is a motive for everything done under the sun; only first find out the poisoner, and then you will soon have his motive." The listeners both stared inquiringly at the doctor's averted face, but could make nothing out of it or him.

The next moment, pleading a pressing necessity for his return to Dublin, he made his farewell to his friends, and left them together.

After a few words more with his nephew, Sir Miles also arose to depart, upon an arrangement that he was to get the two suspected persons secured under lock and key, to await a magisterial investigation. "In about an hour, my dear James," continued Sir Miles, you will find me in the library, when we shall settle together another melancholy business-that is, if you think yourself well enough."

James bowed low, and assured his uncle that, although not quite strong, he felt himself well enough for any effort that could tend to promote his good uncle's interest or wishes. Sir Miles was retiring.

"Shall I ring to have that taken away?" whispered James, pointing sideways to the little relics of mortality, which, covered by some drapery found at hand, remained upon his oak table.

"No," answered his uncle, "I wish no hands but some of our own to touch the little being-the little fragment of earth that was, for so short a time, a being, I mean; so I would ask you to let it stay as it is until- His uncle heard James involuntarily draw in his breath, and saw him again change colour; "but I forgot-pardon me-I forgot your nervousness on those points, as well indeed your recent illness, James. Well, I can assist you, though I still say no to the interference of common servants. Come, then, wreck of my own poor little grandson! no arms but mine shall encircle you, till you are placed in those of the first and the last mother who claims the nursing of us all."

He tenderly and reverently took up again his former little fardel, and bore it out of the study.

James Hutchinson was left seemingly alone. in the middle of the room.

He stood a moment His head and eyes were bent downward. He drew a long, hard, cold sigh. Then he suddenly passed his fingers through his hair-advanced to a window-dashed back its shuttersthrew it up, uttering, with an expression of loathing impatience on his face, a "pah !"-rudely pushed away the oak table to one side of the study-closed, locked, and bolted his double doors-reapproached the open window, through which the rays of the setting moon came

in, coyishly struggling with the very faintest, faintest daybreak— inhaled once or twice long draughts of the fresh air-again folded the shutters across the window-placed his single bed-room candle in a remote corner, and then went to the door of a dressing closet, almost in a corner opposite, unlocked it with a key taken from his pocket, whispered "Mike!" and Mike Cassin accordingly slouched into his patron's presence.

"Now, sir," said the latter, "to finish our interrupted conversation—and finished it must be quickly-the day begins to break, and you have scarce a quarter of an hour more to remain on these honest premises."

"Wid all my heart, Misther James; bud, afore we begin, I'd be axin' you what war them two doin' here wid you so long?"

"O nothing, Mike, nothing! only talking about Mrs. William Hutchinson's sudden illness."

They didn't bring in the dead babby here, sir?" Cassin continued to question, glaring round him in a kind of superstitious appre

hension.

"Tut, no, man," answered James Hutchinson, seeing that the fellow's 's nerves were beginning to be unstrung-a circumstance which would be of no use to him."

"I could not hear, well, what was goin' on among ye, an' I locked up in that little dark hole there; bud I thought

"Turf-and-buttermilk, Mike!" you were dreaming, I say; put all that nonsense out of your head, and listen to the rest I have to tell you. I shall require your further help, now, between this worthy father and his excellent son. Give ear to me. Sir Miles has already won Blake to leave Master William's punishment in his own hands; and that punishment, after some ridiculous show of religious preaching and parental authority, will amount to nothing more than Mr. William's free pardon ;—and in that case, Mike, tell me what we shall have won?-Nothing."

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Nothing, sure enough, sir!" and Mike looked really as puzzled as it was intended he should do.

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Nothing," repeated James Hutchinson, "except the odorous conversion of a very humbled, whining penitent, and his due reinstalment in all righteousness, and in all his usurped luxuries, to boot. Now, Mike, I wish him to repent, too, but not quite so soon; he has not sinned enough for it. It would be affectation in him at present. O believe me, sir, we have yet work before us."

"And what kind of work is it to be, Masther James ?" fixing his half-frightened eyes on his companion.

James stepped close to Cassin, and whispered in his ear-" He hates his father! Stand upon that ground, and tell me what you see from it.

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Faith, an' I see very little, God help me, sir, from it, at all." "Pshaw, man! and did you never hear that human passionsAnd here James Hutchinson walked up and down his study, speaking vehemently, though still in a kept-down voice, and seeming as if he rather gave almost unconscious vent, for his own gratification, to his own thoughts, than as if he addressed himself to the listener-" Did