How the baron might have intended to make use of them--almost all robbers and murderers by trade--cannot be known, though it may be suspected.

In this room the last interview between them took place, and here, on this silent witness of the deed, the hand of the father was bathed in the blood of the son!" "God in heaven!" burst from Nigel's parched lips, as he sprang up.

"The son--how could that be?
how known ?" "Fearfully, most fearfully!" shudderingly answered the old man; "through the dying ravings of the maniac Lord of Brus himself.

Had not heaven, in its all-seeing justice, thus revealed it, the crime would ever have remained concealed.

His bandit hirelings were at hand to remove and bury, many fathoms deep in moat and earth, all traces of the deed.