form, or in what manner, the Fiend appeared to the narrator, or conveyed
his infernal dictates. The man at first refused to say; but it was
gradually drawn from him that the Demon had no certain and invariable
form: sometimes it appeared to him in the form of a rat; sometimes even
of a leaf, or a fragment of wood, or a rusty nail; but that his Master's
voice always came to him distinctly, whatever shape he appeared in; only,
he said, with an air of great importance, his Master, this time, had
graciously condescended, ever since he left the asylum, to communicate
with him in a much more pleasing and imposing aspect than he had ever done
before,--in the form of a beautiful youth, or, rather, like a bright
rose-coloured shadow, in which the features of a young man were visible,
and that he had heard the voice more distinctly than usual, though in a
milder tone, and seeming to come to him from a great distance.

After these revelations the man became suddenly disturbed. He shook from
limb to limb, he seemed convulsed with terror; he cried out that he had
betrayed the secret of his Master, who had warned him not to describe his
appearance and mode of communication, or he would surrender his servant to
the tormentors. Then the maniac's terror gave way to fury; his more
direful propensity made itself declared; he sprang into the midst of his
frightened listeners, seized Mr. Vigors by the throat, and would have
strangled him but for the prompt rush of the superintendent and his
satellites. Foaming at the mouth, and horribly raving, he was then
manacled, a strait-waistcoat thrust upon him, and the group so left him
in charge of his captors. Inquiries were immediately directed towards
such circumstantial evidence as might corroborate the details he had so
minutely set forth. The purse, recognized as Sir Philip's, by the valet
of the deceased, was found buried under the wych-elm. A policeman
despatched, express, to the town in which the maniac declared the knife to
have been purchased, brought back word that a cutler in the place