Page:Sylvester Sound the Somnambulist (1844).djvu/404

"Dod't you thidk that the evidedce of by bad Jib will be of sobe service?"

"Can he prove anything?"

"Why Soudd, just before he left Loddod, broke by pier-glass, id a state of sobdabbulisb?"

"Did your servant see him do it?"

"He saw hib go idto the roob at dight, add I foudd it sbashed id the bordidg."

"He saw him go into the room, you say?"

"Yes: with dothidg od but his shirt. He moreover saw id his hadd a pistol, of which he subsequedtly heard the report, add I foudd the ball id the wall this bordidg, just where the pier-glass stood."

"That'll do," said Wilks. "That'll do. There's nothing like a little collateral evidence. When can I see your servant?"

"Oh, I'll sedd hib to you id the course of the bordidg."

"Thank you. Very good. Now, then, I'll take down your evidence."

The facts were then reduced to writing, and appeared to be alone a sufficient defence; and when Tom had again promised to send James on his return, he left the office, fully convinced that Sylvester must have a verdict.

While Tom was thus engaged with the solicitor, Sylvester wrote to his aunt, requesting her to come to town immediatedly; and informing her of the fact of his being a somnambulist.

This may appear to have been indiscreet, and indeed to a certain extent it was so, for when the information reached Cotherstone Grange, Aunt Eleanor nearly fainted.

Sylvester's object was simply to prepare her for the reception of that intelligence which he had to communicate, and at which he conceived she might otherwise be shocked; but no sooner did the bare fact of his being a somnambulist reach her, than her anxious thoughts reverted to her brother, and she felt wretched.

Her reverend friend was with her when the letter arrived, and on perceiving her emotion, his anxiety was intense.

"Dear Eleanor!" he exclaimed, "what is it? What—what can have occurred?"

Aunt Eleanor gave him the letter to read, and he read it—hastily, being apprehensive of meeting with something dreadful; but finding nothing to realise his lively apprehensions, he read it again with more care.

"A somnambulist:" said he, at length, thoughtfully; "a somnambulist. A somnambulist is a person who walks in his sleep: a sleep walker: one who walks while asleep, and imagines he's awake. I have read many strange accounts of these somnambulists. But what, my dear Eleanor, induced your distress?"

"The fact of his being a somnambulist," she replied. "My poor brother was one. It was that which brought him to a premature grave."

"Well, that was very lamentable—very. But Sylvester is young! He is in fact quite a youth! and I hold it to be extremely fortunate that the