At the church door, afterward, he dropped a peculiarly cold iceberg down the clergyman's back with the question-- 'Do you know that letter to be genuine ?' It was the first suspicion that had ever been voiced; but it had that sickening effect which first-uttered suspicions against one's idol always have.

Some talk followed-- 'Why--what should make you suspect that it isn't genuine ?' 'Nothing that I know of, except that it is too neat, and compact, and fluent, and nicely put together for an ignorant person, an unpractised hand.

I think it was done by an educated man.' The literary artist had detected the literary machinery.

If you will look at the letter now, you will detect it yourself--it is observable in every line.
Straightway the clergyman went off, with this seed of suspicion sprouting in him, and wrote to a minister residing in that town where Williams had been jailed and converted; asked for light; and also asked if a person in the literary line (meaning me) might be allowed to print the letter and tell its history.

He presently received this answer-- Rev .-- -- ---- MY DEAR FRIEND,--In regard to that 'convict's letter' there can be no doubt as to its genuineness.