he happened to know already that nothing had been touched? True it was, and a fact which had puzzled, no less than it had awed the magistrates, that upon their examination of the premises many rich articles of bijouterie, jewellery, and personal ornaments had been found lying underanged, and apparently in their usual situations; articles so portable that in the very hastiest flight some might have been carried off. In particular there was a crucifix of gold, enriched with jewels so large and rare, that of itself it would have constituted a prize of great magnitude. Yet this was left untouched, though suspended in a little oratory that had been magnificently adorned by the elder of the maiden sisters: there was an altar, in itself a splendid object, furnished with every article of the most costly material and workmanship, for the private celebration of mass. This crucifix, as well as every thing else in the little closet, must have been seen by one, at least, of the murderous party; for hither had one of the ladies fled; hither had one of the murderers pursued; she had clasped the golden pillars which supported the altar; had turned perhaps her dying looks upon the crucifix; for there, with one arm still wreathed about the altar foot, though in her agony she had turned round upon her face, did the elder sister lie when the magistrate first broke open the streetdoor. And upon the beautiful parquet, or inlaid floor which ran round the room, were still impressed the footsteps of the murderer. These, it was hoped, might furnish a clue to the discovery of one at least among the murderous band. They were rather difficult to trace accurately; those parts of the traces which lay upon the black tessella being less distinct in the outline than the others upon the white or coloured. Most unquestionably, so far as this went, it furnished a negative circumstance in favour of the negro, for the footsteps were very different in outline from his, and smaller, for Aaron was a man of colossal build. And as to his knowledge of the state in which the premises had been found, and his having so familiarly relied upon the fact of no robbery having taken place as an argument on his own behalf-he contended that he had himself been amongst the crowd that pushed into the house along with the

magistrates; that from his previous acquaintance with the rooms and their ordinary condition, a glance of the eye had been sufficient for him to ascertain the undisturbed condition of all the valuable property most obvious to the grasp of a robber; that in fact, he had seen enough for his argument before he and the rest of the mob had been ejected by the magistrates; but finally, that independently of all this, he had heard both the officers, as they conducted him, and all the tumultuous gatherings of people in the street, arguing for the mysteriousness of the bloody transaction upon that very circumstance of so much gold, silver, and jewels being left behind untouched.

In six weeks or less from the date of this terrific event, the negro was set at liberty by a majority of voices amongst the magistrates. In that short interval other events had occurred, no less terrific and mysterious. In this first murder, though the motive was dark and unintelligible, yet the agency was not so; ordinary assassins apparently, and with ordinary means, had assailed a helpless and an unprepared family; had separated them; attacked them singly in flight (for in this first case all but one of the murdered persons appeared to have been making for the street door); and in all this there was no subject for wonder, except the original one as to the motive. But now came a series of cases destined to fling this earliest murder into the shade. Nobody could now be unprepared; and yet the tragedies, henceforwards, which passed before us, one by one, in sad, leisurely, or in terrific groups, seemed to argue a lethargy like that of apoplexy in the victims, one and all. The very midnight of mysterious awe fell upon all minds.

Three weeks had passed since the murder at Mr. Weishaupt's-three weeks the most agitated that had been known in this sequestered city. We felt ourselves solitary, and thrown upon our own resources: all combination with other towns being unavailing from their great distance. Our situation was no ordinary one. Had there been some mysterious robbers amongst us, the chances of a visit, divided amongst so many, would have been too small to distress the most timid; whilst to young and high-spirited people, with courage to spare for ordinary trials,

favourite sultana of some Amurath or Mahomet. What was she to Maximilian, or what had she been? For, by the tear which I had once seen him drop upon this miniature when he believed himself unobserved, I conjectured that her dark tresses were already laid low, and her name among the list of vanished things. Probably she was his mother, for the dress was rich with pearls, and evidently that of a person in the highest rank of court beauties. I sighed as I thought of the stern melancholy of her son, if Maximilian, were he, as connected probably, with the fate and fortunes of this majestic beauty; somewhat haughty, perhaps, in the expression of her fine features, but still noble-generous confiding. Laying the picture on the table, I awoke Maximilian and told him of the dreadful news. He is tened attentively, made no remark, but proposed that we should go together to the meeting of our quarter at the Black Friars. He coloured on observing the miniature on the table, and, therefore, I frankly told him in what situation I had found it, and that I had taken the liberty of admiring it for a few moments. He pressed it tenderly to his lips, sighed heavily, and we walked away together.

I pass over the frenzied state of feeling in which we found the meeting. Fear, or rather horror, did not promote harmony; many quarrelled with each other in discussing the suggestions brought forward, and Maximilian was the only person attended to; he proposed a nightly mounted patrol for every district. And in particular, he offered, as being himself a member of the University, that the students should form themselves into a guard, and go out by rotation to keep watch and ward from sunset to sunrise. Arrangements were made towards that object by the few people who retained possession of their senses, and for the present we separated.

Never in fact, did any events so keenly try the difference between man and man. Some started up into heroes under the excitement. Some, alas for the dignity of Man! drooped into helpless imbecility. Women, in some cases, rose superior to men, but yet not so often as might have happened under a less mysterious danger. A woman is not unwo

m

manly because she confronts danger boldly. But I have remarked, with respect to female courage, that it requires, more than that of men, to be sustaid by hope; and that it droops mor ertainly in the presence of a us danger. The fancy of is more active, if not stronger, influences more directly the physical nature. In this case few were the women who made even a show of defying the danger. On the contrary, with them fear took the form of sadness; while with many of the men it took that of wrath.

wo

and

And how did the Russian guardsman conduct himself amidst this panic? Many were surprised at his behaviour, some complained of it; I did neither. He took a reasonable interest in each separate case, listened to the details with attention, and in the examination of persons able to furnish evidence, never failed to suggest judicious questions. But still he manifested a coolness almost amounting to carelessness, which to many appeared revolting. But these people I desired to notice that all the other military students, who had been long in the army, felt exactly in the same way. In fact, the military service of Christendom, for the last ten years, had been any thing but a parade service; and to those therefore, who were familiar with every form of horrid butchery, the mere outside horrors of death had lost much of their terror. In the recent murder, there had not been much to call forth sympathy. The family consisted of two old bachelors, two sisters, and one grand-niece. The niece was absent on a visit, and the two old men were cynical misers, to whom little personal interest attached. Still, in this case as in that of the Weishaupts, the same two-fold mystery confounded the public mind; the mystery of the how, and the profounder mystery of the why. Here, again, no atom of property was taken, though both the misers had hordes of ducats and English guineas in the very room where they died. Their bias, again, though of an unpopular character, had rather availed to make them unknown than to make them hateful. In one point this case differed memorably from the other-that instead of falling helpless or flying victims as the Weishaupts had done, these old men, strong, resolute, and not so much

a room; but previously he had heard a rush up-stairs, and words like those of a person exulting, and then a door closed; once it opened, and he could distinguish the words in one voice and for that!" to which another voice replied, in tones that made his heart quake-"Ay, for that, sir." And then the same voice went on rapidly to say, "Oh, dog! could you hope"-at which word the door closed again. Once he thought that he heard a scuffle, and he was sure that he heard the sound of feet, as if rushing from one corner of a room to another. But then all was hushed and still for about six or seven minutes, until a voice close to his ear said, "Now, wait quietly till some persons come in to release you. This will happen within half-an-hour." Accordingly, in less than that time, he again heard the sound of feet within the house, his own bandages were liberated, and he was brought to tell his story at the police-office. Mr. Heinberg was found in his bed-room.— He had died by strangulation, and the cord was still tightened about his neck. During the whole dreadful scene, his youthful wife had been locked into a closet, where she heard or saw nothing. In the second case, the object of vengeance was again an elderly man, Of the ordinary family, all were absent at a country-house, except the master and a female servant. She was a woman of courage, and blessed with the firmest nerves; so that she might have been relied on for reporting accurately every thing seen or heard. But things took another course. The first warning that she had of the murderers' presence was from their steps and voices already in the hall. She heard her master run hastily into the hall, crying out, "Lord Jesus!-Mary, Mary, save me!" The servant resolved to give what aid she could, seized a large poker, and was hurrying to his assistance, when she found that they had nailed up the door of communication at the head of the stairs. What passed after this she could not tell; for when the impulse of intrepid fidelity had been balked, and she found that her own safety was provided for, by means which made it impossible to aid a poor fellow-creature who had just invoked her name, the generoushearted creature was overcome by anguish of mind, and sank down on

the stair, where she lay, unconscious of all that succeeded, until she found herself raised in the arms of a mob who had entered the house. And how came they to have entered? In a way characteristically dreadful. The night was star-lit; the patrols had perambulated the street without noticing any thing suspicious. when two foot-passengers, who were following in their rear, observed a dark-coloured stream traversing the causeway.— One of them at the same instant tracing the stream backwarks with his eyes, observed that it flowed from under the door of Mr. Münzer, and, dipping his finger in the trickling fluid, he held it up to the lamp-light, yelling out at the moment, Why, this is blood!" It was so indeed, and it was yet warm. The other saw, heard, and, like an arrow, flew after the horsepatrol, then in the act of turning the corner. One cry, full of meaning. was sufficient for cars full of expectation. The horsemen pulled up, wheeled, and in another moment reined up at Mr. Münzer's door. The crowd, gathering like the drifting of snow, supplied implements, which soon forced the chains of the door, and all other obstacles. But the murderous party had escaped, and all traces of their persons had vanished, as usual.

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Rarely did any case occur without some peculiarity more or less interesting. In that which happened on the following night, making the fifth in the series, an impressive incident varied the monotony of horrors. In this case the parties aimed at were two elderly ladies, who conducted a female boarding-school. None of the pupils as yet, had returned to school from their vacation; but two sisters, young girls of thirteen and sixteen,coming from a distance, had staid at school throughout the Christmas holidays. It was the youngest of these who gave the only evidence of any value, and one which added a new feature of alarm to the existing panic. Thus it was that her testimony was given:-On the day before the murder, she and her sister were sitting with the old ladies in a room fronting to the street; the elder ladies were reading, the young ones drawing. Louisa, the youngest, never had her ear inattentive to the slighest sound, and once it struck her-that she heard the creaking of a foot upon the stairs. She said nothing, but slipping out of the