"Good knowledge of the facts--that this month, eight years ago, in the little Methodist chapel of the navy yard, in Washington City, you made Marian Mayfield your wife--that this night seven years since, in just such a storm as this, on the beach below Pine Bluff, you met and murdered Marian Willcoxen! And, moreover, I as sure you, that these facts which I tell you now, to-morrow I will lay before a magistrate, together with all the corroborating proof in my possession!" "And what proof can you have?" "A gentleman who, unknown and unsuspected, witnessed the private ceremony between yourself and Marian; a packet of French letters, written by yourself from Glasgow, to Marian, in St. Mary's, in the spring of 1823; a note found in the pocket of her dress, appointing the fatal meeting on the beach where she perished. Two physicians, who can testify to your unaccountable absence from the deathbed of your parent on the night of the murder, and also to the distraction of your manner when you returned late the next morning." "And this," said Thurston, gazing in mournful amazement upon her; "this is the child that I have nourished and brought up in my house! She can believe me guilty of such atrocious crime--she can aim at my honor and my life such a deadly blow?" "Alas! alas! it is my duty! it is my fate! I cannot escape it! I have bound my soul by a fearful oath! I cannot evade it! I shall not survive it! Oh, all the heaven is black with doom, and all the earth tainted with blood!" cried Miriam, wildly. "You are insane, poor girl! you are insane!" said Thurston, pityingly. "Would Heaven I were! would Heaven I were! but I am not! I am not! Too well I remember I have bound my soul by an oath to seek out Marian's destroyer, and deliver him up to death! And I must do it! I must do it! though my heart break--as it will break in the act!" "And you believe me to be guilty of this awful crime!" "There stands the fearful evidence! Would Heaven it did not exist! oh! would Heaven it did not!" "Listen to me, dear Miriam," he said, calmly, for he had now recovered his self-possession. "Listen to me--I am perfectly guiltless of the crime you impute to me. How is it possible that I could be otherwise than guiltless. Hear me explain the circumstances that have come to your knowledge," and he attempted to take her hand to lead her to a seat. But with a slight scream, she snatched her hand away, saying wildly: "Touch me not! Your touch thrills me to sickness! to faintness! curdles--turns back the current of blood in my veins!" "You think this hand a blood-stained one?" "The evidence! the evidence!" "I can explain that evidence. Miriam, my child, sit down--at any distance from me you please--only let it be near enough for you to hear. Did I believe you quite sane, Miriam, grief and anger might possibly seal my lips upon this subject--but believing you partially deranged--from illness and other causes--I will defend myself to you. Sit down and hear me."