Hearing the voice of the prisoner
discoursing loudly, curiosity had led him to the door of his cell, but
what was his dismay and consternation at finding the prisoner in a swoon
on the floor, whilst over him, as if to protect him, lent the fair
youthful form of a maiden, who after fixing her eyes intently for a
moment, pointed to the writing on the wall. The jailor, perfectly dumbfounded, would have asked her in surly tones,
how she came there, and who let her in, but the presence of the figure
filled him, in spite of himself, with such awe that he could not utter a
word. Then glancing at the writing on the wall and then again at the
figure of the maiden, who looked at him in a manner that made him feel
he knew not how, as he afterwards declared, he observed her rise to her
feet, retreat one pace, and pointing once more to the writing on the
wall, gradually dissolved herself into a mist and disappeared from his
sight. The jailor's courage now fairly left him, his knees knocked together in
a panic, and he dropped his bunch of keys on the ground. At length
recovering from his first surprise, he gazed around him, and found
himself alone with the prisoner, who was still in his swoon. The first
thing that he did was to secure the door of the cell, then walking up to
the prisoner, shook him roughly, and assailed him with questions. "Beautiful vision!" cried Archer, now awaking from his swoon, "thou has
saved my life by denouncing the true murderer. Were it not for thee I
might---- But where art thou? Gone--Fled? Has it, then, been all a
dream? Oh!" he groaned, as his eyes caught the jailor bending over him. "Come, be of good cheer, young man," said the jailor, kindly. "It was no
dream, or if it was, we have both been dreaming, and had the same dream. I, too, saw the lady. I'll swear to that in any court of justice. Well,
I never believed in ghosts before, young man. I never did, upon my word,
but after what I have just seen with these eyes----"

"What! you saw her, too?" interrupted Archer. "You? Then it was no
dream, but a divine vision sent by Providence to preserve the innocent. Look, there is her writing on the wall." "What means that name, young man?" asked the jailor, gravely. "She traced it with her own finger. I asked her to reveal to me the name
of the true murderer, and that was the name she traced upon the wall." "You are not imposing upon me, young man?" inquired the jailor,
suspiciously. "Not I," answered Archer, frankly. "Did you not see her yourself?" "True, true," quoth the jailor; "I remember that she pointed to the
writing and then vanished. Well, upon my soul, I do not know what to
think of the matter. I have been here thirty years come Michaelmas, but
what I have seen to-day passes all the experience of Miles Gratelock. I'll inform the authorities of what has taken place at once, and I'll
yet hope to see you out of this place; for to tell you the honest
truth, lad, I don't think you capable of the murder, and never did; yet
appearances," he added, "appearances, you know, must be taken into
consideration, and they are often against us. However, we'll hope for
the best." Here the kindly jailor left the cell, and locking the door after him
went straight to the authorities and laid the whole matter of the vision
before them. As may be anticipated, the story was ridiculed. Some said
that the jailor had been bribed by the prisoner to concoct such a
narrative; others declared that the jailor must have been drunk, and
having forgotten to lock the door of the cell some young female may have
found admittance, and to cover his negligence he had trumped up this
improbable story. They, however, took the trouble to visit the cell of the prisoner and to
examine the writing on the wall, which they all declared themselves to
be at a loss to guess with what material the prisoner himself could have
written the name. The prisoner was questioned and cross-questioned, but
was not found to contradict himself in anything. A piece of chalk was
then put into the prisoner's hand and he was ordered to write the same
name underneath that supposed to have been written by the spirit, but
the handwriting was perfectly dissimilar. The jailor was then called,
and had to do the same, but neither in this case did the writing at all
resemble the burnt characters on the wall. Now, however mysterious this affair might have appeared to the
authorities, yet to convict a gentleman of De Chevron's standing, or
indeed any man upon such evidence as this, would be as absurd as it
would be unfair; nevertheless, the story of the apparition in the
prisoner's cell and of the writing on the wall spread like wildfire
through the village, and had the effect of shaking the belief of many
who had hitherto believed Archer guilty, and confirming more than ever
in their previous belief those who still maintained him innocent. The general currency of this story, too, gave rise to inquiries as to
the intimacy that had existed between John Archer and De Chevron. A
certain amount of intimacy it was proved had existed between them, but
so far the evidence was rather on De Chevron's side, as witnesses came
forward to prove that De Chevron had always shown himself most friendly
towards young Archer, and had occasionally made him some trifling
present. There was no evidence that they had ever fallen out together, and
therefore there was no reason at all to suspect De Chevron of the
malicious conduct attributed to him of committing a murder himself in
order that an innocent man should be convicted of it. To strengthen the
absurdity of the supposition, it was alleged that De Chevron had been
absent in London at the time of the murder, thereby proving an _alibi_. Others not being satisfied with this statement, desired that it should
be proved beyond doubt that De Chevron was in London at the time. Upon
examination, however, the evidence was not quite so favourable to De
Chevron this time. More than one witness deposed to having seen him at
the window, although he had not been seen out of doors. It was proved
that he had never quitted the village, although he had given out to his
friends his intention of going to London; but he sought to exculpate
himself by saying that he had announced to his friends his intended
departure for London in order that he might avoid visits and enjoy the
strictest seclusion for a time, as he was studying for the law. This excuse was deemed sufficient, and might have satisfied all parties,
had not still more startling evidence turned up. In the meantime the all
but defunct pedlar had sufficiently recovered in order to give a
detailed account of the occurrences on the night of the murder, and of
De Chevron's duplicity and treachery, although he owned himself at a
loss to conceive the motive of the attempted murder. He acquitted John Archer of being implicated in any way in the crime,
and denounced De Chevron as a double-dealing murderous villain.