By her death, my education and habits
were left solely to the guidance of my surviving parent; and, so far as
a stern attention to my religious instruction, and an active anxiety
evinced by his procuring for me the best masters to perfect me in those
accomplishments which my station and wealth might seem to require, could
avail, he amply discharged the task. My father was what is called an oddity, and his treatment of me, though
uniformly kind, flowed less from affection and tenderness than from a
sense of obligation and duty. Indeed, I seldom even spoke to him except
at meal-times, and then his manner was silent and abrupt; his leisure
hours, which were many, were passed either in his study or in solitary
walks; in short, he seemed to take no further interest in my happiness
or improvement than a conscientious regard to the discharge of his own
duty would seem to claim. Shortly before my birth, a circumstance had occurred which had
contributed much to form and to confirm my father's secluded habits--it
was the fact that a suspicion of murder had fallen upon his younger
brother, a suspicion not sufficiently definite to lead to an indictment,
yet strong enough to ruin him in public opinion. This disgraceful and dreadful doubt cast upon the family name my father
felt deeply and bitterly, and not the less so that he himself was
thoroughly convinced of his brother's innocence. The sincerity and
strength of this impression he shortly afterwards proved in a manner
which produced the dark events which follow. Before, however, I enter
upon the statement of them, I ought to relate the circumstances which
had awakened the suspicion; inasmuch as they are in themselves somewhat
curious, and, in their effects, most intimately connected with my after
history. My uncle, Sir Arthur T----n, was a gay and extravagant man, and,
among other vices, was ruinously addicted to gaming; this unfortunate
propensity, even after his fortune had suffered so severely as to render
inevitable a reduction in his expenses by no means inconsiderable,
nevertheless continued to actuate him, almost to the exclusion of all
other pursuits. He was a proud, or rather a vain man, and could not bear
to make the diminution of his income a matter of gratulation and triumph
to those with whom he had hitherto competed; and the consequence was
that he frequented no longer the expensive haunts of dissipation, and
retired from the gay world, leaving his coterie to discover his reasons
as best they might. He did not, however, forego his favourite vice, for, though he could not
worship his divinity in the costly temples where it was formerly his
wont to take his stand, yet he found it very possible to bring about him
a sufficient number of the votaries of chance to answer all his ends. The consequence was that Carrickleigh, which was the name of my uncle's
residence, was never without one or more of such reckless visitors. It happened that upon one occasion he was visited by one Hugh Tisdall--a
gentleman of loose habits but of considerable wealth--who had, in early
youth, travelled with my uncle upon the Continent. The period of his
visit was winter, and, consequently, the house was nearly deserted
except by its regular inmates; Mr. Tisdall was therefore highly
acceptable, particularly as my uncle was aware that his visitor's tastes
accorded exactly with his own. Both parties seemed determined to avail themselves of their suitability
during the brief stay which Mr. Tisdall had promised; the consequence
was that they shut themselves up in Sir Arthur's private room for nearly
all the day and the greater part of the night, during the space of
nearly a week. At the end of this period the servant having one morning,
as usual, knocked at Mr. Tisdall's bedroom door repeatedly, received no
answer, and, upon attempting to enter, found that it was locked. This
appeared suspicious, and the inmates of the house having been alarmed,
the door was forced open, and, on proceeding to the bed, they found the
body of its occupant perfectly lifeless, and hanging half-way out, the
head downwards, and near the floor. One deep wound had been inflicted
upon the temple, apparently with some blunt instrument, which had
penetrated the brain; and another blow less effective, probably the
first aimed, had grazed the head, removing some of the scalp, but
leaving the skull untouched. The door had been double-locked upon the
inside, in evidence of which the key still lay where it had been placed
in the lock. The window, though not secured on the interior, was closed--a
circumstance not a little puzzling, as it afforded the only other mode
of escape from the room; it looked out, too, upon a kind of courtyard,
round which the old buildings stood, formerly accessible by a narrow
doorway and passage lying in the oldest side of the quadrangle, but
which had since been built up, so as to preclude all ingress or egress. The room was also upon the second story, and the height of the window
considerable. Near the bed were found a pair of razors belonging to the
murdered man, one of them upon the ground and both of them open. The
weapon which had inflicted the mortal wound was not to be found in
the room, nor were any footsteps or other traces of the murderer
discoverable. At the suggestion of Sir Arthur himself, a coroner was instantly
summoned to attend, and an inquest was held; nothing, however, in any
degree conclusive was elicited. The walls, ceiling, and floor of the
room were carefully examined, in order to ascertain whether they
contained a trap-door or other concealed mode of entrance--but no such
thing appeared. Such was the minuteness of investigation employed that although the
grate had contained a large fire during the night, they proceeded to
examine even the very chimney, in order to discover whether escape
by it were possible; but this attempt, too, was fruitless, for the
chimney, built in the old fashion, rose in a perfectly perpendicular
line from the hearth to a height of nearly fourteen feet above the roof,
affording in its interior scarcely the possibility of ascent, the flue
being smoothly plastered, and sloping towards the top like an inverted
funnel. Even if the summit of the chimney were attained, it promised,
owing to its great height, but a precarious descent upon the sharp and
steep-ridged roof. The ashes, too, which lay in the grate, and the soot,
as far as it could be seen, were undisturbed, a circumstance almost
conclusive. Sir Arthur was of course examined; his evidence was given with a
clearness and unreserve which seemed calculated to silence all
suspicion.