The boot was immediately carried off to the inn; but as Mr. Egerton had the measurements with him at Ryebury, Dr. Wilton was obliged to wait one mortal hour and a half ere he could proceed to ascertain the correspondence of the valet's boot with the bloody mark of the murderer's foot, tormenting himself about Beauchamp in the meanwhile. After waiting that time, however, in fretful incertitude, as to going to the place itself, or staying his fellow magistrate's return, Mr. Egerton appeared, the paper on which the footmarks had been traced was produced, and the boot being set down thereon, filled up one of the vacant spaces without the difference of a line.
"Now, now, we have him!" cried Dr. Wilton, rubbing his hands eagerly. "Now we have him. Beyond all question, the council for the crown will permit the least criminal to become king's evidence, and I doubt not, in the slightest degree, that we shall find poor William Delaware completely exculpated."
"You call to my mind, my dear friend," said Mr. Egerton, laying his hand on Dr. Wilton's arm, as if to stop his transports? "You call to my mind a waggish receipt for dressing a strange dish."
"How so? How so?" demanded Dr. Wilton, with a subdued smile at the reproof of his eagerness, which he knew was coming in some shape or other. "What is your receipt, my dear sir?"
"It runs thus"--answered Mr. Egerton, "How to dress a griffin--First catch a griffin!--and then, dress him any way you like!"
"Well, well!" answered Dr. Wilton. '"We will try to catch the griffin, my dear sir, and you shall not find me wanting in ardour to effect the preliminary step, if you will aid me to bring about the second, and let me dress my griffin when I have caught him. To say truth," he added, relapsing into grave seriousness, "the subject is not a laughing one; and I am afraid I have suffered my personal feelings to become somewhat too keenly interested--perhaps to a degree of levity. God knows, there is little reason for us to be eager in the matter, except from a desire that, by the punishment of the guilty, the innocent should be saved, and I am willing to confess, that I entertain not the slightest doubt of the innocence of William Delaware. A crime has certainly been committed by some one; and according to all the laws of God and man, it is one which should be punished most severely. Heaven forbid, however, that I should treat such a matter with levity. All I meant to say is, that if we do succeed in apprehending the real murderers, we must endeavour to make their conviction the means of clearly exculpating the innocent."
"I hope we shall be as successful as you could wish," replied Mr. Egerton; "and I think it would give me scarcely less pleasure then it would give yourself, to hear that Captain Delaware is innocent, although I will not suffer either a previous good character, or a gallant deportment, or a handsome countenance, to weigh with me, except as presumptive testimony in his favour, and as a caution to myself, to be on my guard against the natural predilections of man's heart. But what have you discovered regarding the hat?"
"Confirmation, I am afraid too strong, of my worst fears," answered Dr. Wilton; and he related how positively Mrs. Wilson had declared it to have belonged to Mr. Beauchamp. Measures for investigating this event also, were immediately taken, and information of the supposed death by drowning, of a gentleman lately residing at Emberton, was given to all the stations on that coast. This new catastrophe, of course, furnished fresh food to the gossiping propensities of the people of the town; and the tale, improved by the rich and prolific imagination of its inhabitants, was sent forth connected by a thousand fine and filmy links, with the murder of the miser, and the disappearance of the Delaware family. It instantly appeared in all the public prints, who, to do them but justice, were far too charitable to leave it in its original nakedness. Hence it was transferred, with new scenery, dresses, and decorations, to a broad sheet of very thin paper, and distributed by a man with a loud voice, on the consideration of one halfpenny, to wondering housemaids and keepers of chandlers' shops, under the taking title of the "Rybury Trajedy!" and there is strong reason to believe, that it was alone owing to the temporary difficulties of Mr. ----, of the ---- Theatre, that Captain William Delaware was not brought upon the boards, with a knife in his hand cutting the throat of the miser, while Henry Beauchamp threw himself from the rocks into the sea, for love of the murderer's sister. That this theatrical consummation did not take place, is much to be wondered at; and it is to be hoped, that when the managers are furnished with all the correct particulars, they will still give the public their version of the matter on every stage, from Drury Lane to the very barn at Emberton itself.
As may be easily supposed, for two country magistrates, Dr. Wilton and Mr. Egerton had now their hands tolerably full; and consequently, on separating, they agreed to meet again at Emberton in two days. In the mean time, the funeral of the murdered man took place, conducted, as Mr. Peter Tims assured every body, with that attention to economy, which would have been gratifying to the deceased himself, if he could have witnessed it. Nobody could doubt that the nephew had probability on his side in this respect, though the undertaker grumbled, and the mercer called him a shabby person. After the interment, Mr. Tims took possession of the premises and the papers of the deceased; but, for reasons that may be easily divined, he did not choose to stay in the dwelling that his uncle had inhabited. Passing the ensuing evening and night at the inn, he had all the papers removed thither, and continued in the examination thereof for many an hour, in a room from which even his own clerk was excluded. Those who saw him afterwards declared, that his countenance was as resplendent as a new sovereign; but he selfishly kept all his joy to his own bosom, and after spending another day in Emberton, he set off post for London, with many a bag and tin-case, to take out letters of administration.