"So far as I know," said the physician, "the trial of the monk was only to begin this day. As to Count Victorin, it appears that nothing farther must be said of him. Whatever connection those former events at our court may seem to have with the present, all is to remain in mystery and oblivion." "But," said I, "how the catastrophe at the Baron's castle can be connected with these events at your Prince's court, I am unable to perceive." "Properly," answered the physician, "I allude more to the dramatis personæ than to the incidents." "I do not understand you," said I. "Do you not remember," said the physician, "my relation of the circumstances attending the Duke's death?" "Certainly," answered I. "Has it not then become clear to you," resumed the doctor, "that Francesco entertained a criminal attachment towards the Italian Countess? That it was he who made his entrance secretly into the bridal chamber, and who poniarded the Duke? Victorin, as you know, was the off-spring of that crime. He and Medardus, therefore, are sons of one father. Victorin has vanished from the world, without leaving a trace of his fate. All inquiries after him have been in vain." "The monk," said I, "hurled him down into the Devil's Abyss, amid the Thuringian mountains. Curses on the delirious fratricide!" Softly, at the moment after I had pronounced these words, there came on my ears, from underneath the floor whereon we stood, the same measured knocking which I had heard in my dungeon. Whether this were imagination or reality, the effect on my feelings was the same. I could not contend against the horror which now seized me. The physician seemed neither to remark my agitation, nor the mysterious noise. "What!" said he, "did the monk then confess to you that Victorin also fell by his hand?" "Yes," answered I. "At least I drew this conclusion from various passages in his confused and broken confessions--connecting them also in my own mind with the sudden disappearance of Victorin. Woe--woe to the relentless fratricide!" The knocking was now more powerful. There was again a moaning and sobbing. Methought a shrill laughter sounded through the air, and I heard the same stammering voice--"Me-dar-dus--Me-dar-dus!--He--he--he--Help, help!--He--he--he--Help, help!"--I was amazed that the physician took no notice of this, but he quietly resumed. "An extraordinary degree of mystery seems to rest upon Francesco's appearance at our court. It is highly probable that he also was related to our Prince's house. This much; at least, is certain, that Euphemia, Baroness von F----, was the daughter----"