He hoped to have concealed these doubts; but from the issue, he
imagined that some unguarded word spoken to a companion, must have
betrayed him. He was chosen by the Grand Inquisitor as his companion,
on some secret expedition two days after the trial, unsuspicious
of the danger awaiting him, till the desolate scene on which they
unexpectedly entered flashed terror on his mind. His superior had
there paused, told him that from the witness of Beta, the servant
girl, it was quite evident he had disobeyed part of the instructions
given, or his _return_ to Arthur's lodgings would have been heard by
her as well as his _departure_ and thus at once have implicated the
Englishman as the real murderer; that though chance had thrown equal
suspicion upon him, it did net remove his disobedience, and so he
was doomed to death; and the blow, instantaneously given, felled him
insensible to the ground. When he recovered his senses, he found
himself lying in a deep pit, where he had evidently been thrown as
dead. The wounds and contusions received in the fall, as far as he
could recollect, by producing a most excruciating sense of pain,
roused him from temporary insensibility, and he was convinced he heard
his murderer's voice--though he could not see him--exclaim distinctly,
as if he were leaning over the mouth of the pit, "There goes my last
doubt: other men might call it their last fear, but I know not the
word! Three victims for the possession of one--and who will now
dare to brand me? I had slain that faltering craven without his
disobedience, he dared to _think_ upon his deed.
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