“God’s ways are mysterious, altogether past finding out; and I inwardly praised him as the mighty fact became apparent, that the people of the house were _not_ in league, as I had conjectured might be the case, with Ravalette; and that the mysterious agent of Divine Retribution was _not_ of an infernal nature, be it or he whatever else. A load was lifted off my heart--too soon, alas! to be let down heavier than before. “‘You did not kill him, D’Emprat! So don’t say you did any more!’ exclaimed the woman in the accents of despair. “‘’Tis a _lie_! I did!’ yelled the unfortunate man. ‘I killed him with the hatchet in the cellar, and buried him under the grey horse’s stall in the stable!’ “‘My God! we are ruined!’ screamed the now frantic woman. ‘I always suspected that you killed my brother, but never believed it until now. And, yet, I do not even now believe it; for’---- “‘_I can prove it_; for I well remember a bloody hatchet, and that master never would let me clean the stable of the grey horse; and that I have watched him dig gold from the ground there, and heard him accuse himself in his sleep!’ said the _concierge_, coming forward. “‘Then, D’Emprat, and you, madame, I arrest in the name of the law; and you, porter, as a witness. Officers, do your duty--take the prisoners--clear the house!’ said their chief. “Five minutes afterwards, the unfortunate people were being led to prison, and I was on the way to my hotel to dress--even under such circumstances--for the soirée at the Baron’s, but in a frame of mind that little fitted me to be a spectator of philosophical experiments. Yet my word was pledged, and go I must, and go I did--six o’clock finding me in the Baron’s parlor. “I am perfectly sensible that, even in what I have narrated, the credulity of many persons would be taxed to the utmost. It is easy enough to believe that such things as I have described occurred long ages ago, in the green and halcyon days of Magic, but it is difficult to imagine such things as taking place in the broad light of this nineteenth century. Millions, aye hundreds of millions, have believed, do, and, in coming years, perhaps ages, will believe in the startling records of a magic similar to that I have detailed, and which is described so briefly, yet so graphically, in the Book of Exodus; and yet these people will strenuously insist that the day of such things--of such exhibitions of the Upper Magic--has for ever passed away, totally unmindful of the great fact, that, when the astonishing things there recorded were accomplished, there must of necessity have been a law--a natural law--in accordance with, and by which, they were done, and that no law of Nature has ever yet been repealed; consequently, they must exist to-day in as full perfection and power as ever.