pursuing very leisurely, Mr Macleod heard on a sudden a man call out, "As sure as death, there's that false old devil, old M'Cosh! He'll have been at more of his iniquitous work-and on such a day, too!" Presently a woman's voice put in, "Is that the scandalous old rogue?" and presently he found that people were gathering about him, making abusive remarks, getting louder and louder with their tongues, and assuming a most threatening manner. When he found that he was the object of their scurrility, he attempted to say to those nearest to him that he was a stranger there, and they must be mistaking him for another person. But close to him there happened to stalk a shrew who, directly he opened his mouth to remonstrate, set up a savage yell which drowned his voice; and, clapping his hands as if setting on a pack of dogs, she exhorted the mob to tar and feather him. Hereupon he quickened his pace; and thinking he perceived a broader street in front of him, traversing that in which they were, he made a run for it. This excited his tormentors more highly than before. They gave chase, and burst with him into the wider thoroughfare, which was the one in which I was strolling, and where I became a witness of his danger.

"Papa," said Aline, when he had given this account of himself, "was there not some other occasion on which you were confounded with somebody named M'Cosh?"

"There was," replied her father; "and, I think, more than one. The man is a contractor for some supply to the shipping, and, moreover, a bailie. How he and I came to resemble each other I cannot imagine, but there must be a resemblance."

Nothing could be more flatter

ing, or more gratifying to me, than the terms in which he, speaking to his daughter, acknowledged the value of the assistance which he had that night received from me. I thought he would never have done with his praises, when he was at length interrupted by the entrance of Captain Menzies. That gentleman, as he came in and made his salutation, told them he had not been able to retire to rest after a day of such bustle without ascertaining that they were safe and sound. He, clearly, knew nothing of Mr Macleod's adventure, and he was talking on in his awkward pompous way, when suddenly he literally gasped, turned pale, and staggered. He had not before vouchsafed a look towards me, and it seemed to be the sight of me that produced such emotion in him as if he had seen a spectre rise. After a moment the man attempted to speak to me, and literally was unable to articulate. Whether he intended to reproach me for not waiting for him in Forsyth's lobby, I know not, for he never spoke at all. Finally, after exhibiting the most inexplicable emotion, he fled from the room, and, as it afterwards appeared, from the house, leaving everybody quite horrified by his conduct. In the beginning of his attack, I, seeing that something was greatly troubling and incapacitating him, went towards him with a view of rendering assistance; at his disorder seemed to be so intensified by my propinquity, that the greatest service I could render was to keep out of his sight.

Mr Macleod seemed quite stunned while the strange scene was going on; and Aline was so terrified by the man's irrational violence, that she could only clasp her hands wildly, and attach herself

closely to her father's chair. The disturbance, fortunately, did not last long; and the creator of it having staggered from the room, I was able to say a few words tending to throw some light on what had happened. I first entreated Miss Macleod to be seated and calm herself, and then told of the excited state in which Captain Menzies had shown himself at Forsyth's some hours ago, of his severe losses there, and of the probability that, after we separated, he had again resorted to the bottle for support. As to his paroxysm having apparently been brought on by the sight of me, I mentioned how we had last parted on unusually amicable terms; but I added that my form might certainly be associated with his losses, and if he had been drinking again to excess since they occurred, a new fury might have raged within him on meeting one so intimately connected with his misfortune. If this were not the correct explanation, it was the best I had to offer. We had soon done with the untoward incident. Mr Macleod was glad to return to comments on his own adventures; and he extolled the service which I had rendered him rather beyond what my modesty could bear. I admit, however, that, if I was to be praised to my face, it was delightful to be praised in face of Aline also-and by her own father, too, who of old could find nothing better than depreciatory remarks and cold looks for me.

at that house. For myself, I could feel neither fatigue nor heaviness; I could have stayed up all night enjoying the fairy favours which had so suddenly bestowed themselves upon me. But I knew that Mr Macleod required rest after his adventures, and I thought, too, that Aline's nerves had had trial enough to make a night's rest very desirable for her. Therefore I magnanimously insisted upon taking my leave, and did so, receiving again warm expressions of goodwill, and permission to call in the morning to make inquiries.

I had had, it cannot but be admitted, a sufficiently trying day. It is no wonder, therefore, that, spite of the pleasurable things which my mind had to feed upon, I managed to sleep soundly. But my dreams were as rosy as my waking thoughts; Aline's beauteous form pervaded the beatific visions, her smile gave light to every scene; and notwithstanding the improved prospect that I was waking to, I almost reproached the dog-day rays which put an end to the delicious enchantment.

I did not rise early, so that by the time I had breakfasted it was scarcely too early to proceed to the High Street and make my inquiries; so I was spared even the pangs of a lover's impatience. The streets were now almost empty, the late crowds being for the most part employed in sleeping off their excitement. It was going to be another blazing day; but what cared I if it had been equatorial ? It would have required a large

to dash my joy. How different was the light on everything in nature from that which I had been in the habit of seeing as I made this same excursion on previous occasions! Then gloom,

I

Aline Macleod had risen betimes, notwithstanding the fatigue of last evening. I ventured to hope that she expected an early visit from me, and had resolved that I should not be disappointed. She received me as kindly as I could have desired; but I perceived, as soon as I saw her, a look of anxiety, and a restlessness of manner which surprised, and indeed alarmed me. To my inquiries after her health and after that of her father, she gave satisfactory answers; still I feared that something was vexing her, and I said so.

"There is nothing affecting myself specially, but of course this news is very disturbing."

"What?" I said. "Is there further news? Has Napoleon escaped from our ships?"

"I am not alluding to war news, but to the strange and sad things that have come to light in the city this morning."

"I am ashamed, Miss Macleod, to be so ignorant; but I did not waste a moment in hearing or reading news, so eager was I to ascertain that you had not suffered from the events of last night."

Aline simply bent her head in acknowledgment of my anxiety on her account as she replied, "There is a shocking story going about which states that Captain Menzies was last night engaged in some affray, and that he has wounded Bailie M'Cosh, the very man for whom my father was mistaken.

"Well," I replied, "when he left us last night he seemed likely enough to do something indiscreet. But what can possibly have thrown him in the way of this M'Cosh?"

"As far as I can understand the affair, answered Aline, "it took place before he came here and showed such excitement."

"In that case," I said, "it must have happened just after he left Forsyth's, and officers must have been in search of him at the very time when he was here."

We soon heard plenty more of this strange matter. Several different accounts obtained some currency, but the story, as it survived investigation, was this: The Bailie M'Cosh had, on the evening previous, not chosen to return home by his usual route (which would have taken him over the very ground where poor Mr Macleod had been in so great peril), but had taken a longer and less frequented way. Possibly he may have had a suspicion that he would not be allowed to pass through the sailors without receiving some token of their feeling towards him; but he did not say this. He had gone far away from his office, and had reached a somewhat retired street, when he was aware of two men near him, between whom high words were passing. He drew back, not caring to be mixed in their dispute; but he observed that one of the disputants moved in such a manner as to keep close to him. The other moved in the same direction, because he appeared to be pressing on, and reproaching his companion. Presently the Bailie saw this man's face and heard him say, "Curse you, you have cheated and ruined me; and I'll have your life." Upon that the Bailie received a

stab in his breast, and fell. The assassin made off; but the excitement of that night was such, that there was somebody alive in even the least-frequented thoroughfares. Two men who had been conversing not far off heard the scuffle, and pursued the runaway. They had nearly apprehended him when, rushing through a wynd, he mingled with a dense crowd and escaped for the moment. Both had held him in view long enough to be able to identify him; and one of them having formerly been a waiter at Forsyth's, knew his name and where he was to to found.

These men sent help also to the wounded Bailie; and I may state here that the Bailie, when the proper time came, was able to swear to his assailant.

What puzzled everybody was, who had been Menzies's companion with whom he quarrelled? He seemed to have cleverly separated himself from the rest of the group, and to have escaped all recognition from those who gave evidence against Menzies. He, Menzies, professed to be most anxious to make a clean breast, and to name his companion, whom (and not Bailie M'Cosh) he declared that he had stabbed in self-defence. He had hardly, as he said, known of the Bailie's existence; and he had not he could not have

harboured any ill-will to him. And whom does any reader suppose to have been the comrade? I, even I, was the person named !

A more unfortunate invention could hardly have been made. I have given in this narrative an account of how I employed my time after I left Forsyth's on that evening. Then witnesses, in ample numbers, came to prove that I was never near the scene of the

affray between the time of my carrying off my winnings and Captain Menzies's appearance, late at night, and after the Bailie was stabbed, at Mr Macleod's. I myself, who was accused of no misbehaviour in the matter, and therefore had no reason for making mystery, gave evidence to the effect that I knew nothing whatever about any part of the business, having been elsewhere engaged while it was in progress.

There was, I confess, in this perplexing matter one circumstance which made me doubt whether the Captain could be wilfully and recklessly lying in the account which he gave of the affray-I allude to the terror and horror which he manifested when he recognised me afterwards in Miss Macleod's drawing-room. If he thought that he had stabbed me to the heart an hour or more before, 'twere little wonder that my appearance there-calm and sound -should have, for the moment, deprived him of his reason. And I began to think that the frenzied gambler, distracted by wine and his losses, had really, through some hallucination, imagined that he had struck me when he wounded the Bailie.

But I ought to give Menzies's account of the whole affair, as he thought proper to render it. It was authentically given to the public at last.

Menzies declared that, when he returned from the offices to the lobby at Forsyth's, on the evening when he and I played together, he found me waiting for him, as had been arranged between us. He left the house (so he said) with me, and, in order to observe the lively condition of the streets, induced me to walk towards what was subsequently the scene of the Bailie's misfortune, which was some way

distant from our club. On our way thither we got into a dispute which waxed warm, and then hotter and hotter. At last I made a personal attack on him, and he, purely in self-defence, drew a dagger, and aimed at me a blow which fell on the unhappy M'Cosh. He carried the dagger because of the excited crowds in the streets. He had borrowed it from the steward at Forsyth's during the interview with him before he left.

Now this difficulty about Menzies's companion was never satisfactorily dispelled. That some body had accompanied him there could be no doubt; but who was that somebody? Menzies declared that I was the man-an assertion which I indignantly and solemly deny; an assertion which has been, by overwhelming evidence, disproved in a court of law. Yet the disproval is only a very partial solution; the desideratum was that this person, so essential to the due exposition of the case, should be identified, and he never was.

Many times there came over my mind strange ideas to which I could not venture to give utterance, and which, indeed, I endeavoured, though not successfully, to banish from my mind. Mr Macleod came cruelly near to my secret unhappiness when, one day at dinner at his house, he said, jestingly, "Now, Mr Cameron, if we could only take a Highland liberty with your personality, and establish that you have a double, or second self, the law might be satisfied; without that, it has to deal with a very strange mystery." I knew more about such dualities than he did. They had not operated to my disadvantage, so far, but quite the contrary.

Seeing, then, that the idea of a second ego, though only playfully entertained, had entered into an

other human mind, I began to give it freer adımission into mine. And it was not long before I framed a conjecture of the course which events had taken. My belief was, and still is, that Menzies, when he came into Forsyth's lobby, did see me, or what he took to be me. He went among the crowds with me (as he thought) at his elbow; and he led the way to the lone spot where the blow was struck, his companion not objecting to, but rather encouraging, the movement thither. Then there came the quarrel and the blow. The other I put himself close to Bailie M'Cosh, and then disappeared as the stab was delivered. This explanation can readily be accepted by a man who knows what I know of magical matters. But there still remains the unpleasant reflection that the Bailie received a serious injury simply, as it were, that my affairs might go on in greater prosperity. But further rumination brought more light and

more

contentment even on this head. The Bailie, as I now began to see, was doomed to mischance that night. He got away from it in one form, and Mr Macleod was near to becoming his substitute; but he fell in with the inevitable in another form. Let me add also, that I do not believe one syllable about the quarrel: that, I am sure, was a lie invented by Menzies. If I can understand anything, I perceive most plainly that Menzies intended to murder me that night; and that he would have done it had I, and not my simulacrum, been with him. I recall the sudden manner in which, towards the end of our play, he changed the fierceness which he had been displaying all the evening into gay politeness; how he proposed that we should walk together; and how he left me for a few minutes, prob