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282 seen, to all appearance, dead; at least, he would not have doubted his being so, had he not given signs of life so lately. His eyes were closed, his mouth open, his face of a ghastly hue, and both the sheets and his own person smeared with blood.

"'In the name of God, Sir,' exclaimed Valentine, 'what is the meaning of this, and for what purpose am I brought hither?' but the man not only made no answer, but he showed no symptoms of hearing that, or any other question Valentine put to him; and after contemplating the body for some time, he came to the conclusion, that the exertion the person, whoever he might be, had made, in rising to look through the curtains, had been a last effort of nature, and that he was now really gone.

"But now again recurred the question, for what purpose had he been brought there to be shut up in a room with this dying stranger? Where were the friends, where the attendants, that should have surrounded the bed? The bed, too, of ease and affluence; for there was nothing that indicated poverty or destitution. On the contrary, the house appeared a good one, and was situated in a respectable quarter; and the