desire for mischief, they were about as well satisfied with what had
been done as if the Doctor himself were the victim. And besides, the
fathers and respectabilities of the town, who had seen this mishap from
afar, now began to put forward, crying out, "Keep the peace! keep the
peace! A riot! a riot!" and other such cries as suited the emergency;
and the crowd vanished more speedily than it had congregated, leaving
the Doctor and the two children alone beside the fallen victim of a
quarrel not his own. Not to dwell too long on this incident, the
Doctor, laying hold of the last of his enemies, after the rest had
taken to their heels, ordered him sternly to stay and help him bear the
man, whom he had helped to murder, to his house.

"It concerns you, friend; for, if he dies, you hang to a dead
certainty!"

And this was done accordingly.




CHAPTER VI.


About an hour thereafter there lay on a couch that had been hastily
prepared in the study a person of singularly impressive presence: a
thin, mild-looking man, with a peculiar look of delicacy and natural
refinement about him, although he scarcely appeared to be technically
and as to worldly position what we call a gentleman; plain in dress and
simple in manner, not giving the idea of remarkable intellectual gifts,
but with a kind of spiritual aspect, fair, clear complexion, gentle