between them the bond which it would seem to have destroyed.  The fatal letter lay open on Harry’s lap, but the envelope had fallen on the floor.  Stooping to pick it up, she found something still within it—­some folded slips from a local newspaper, with an account of the inquest, the details of which the governor’s clerk had, perhaps humanely, preferred to communicate in that form, to be read or not as the mother’s feelings might dictate to her.  The two women read it together, not aloud, for neither had the voice for that.  With most of the evidence there recounted we are already familiar.  It was proved that No. 421 had long been in a desponding, brooding state; but, as only a year intervened between the expiration of his term of punishment, his attempt to escape was almost unaccountable, and certainly unparalleled.  No punishment was impending over him.  The opinion of the authorities was expressed that the convict’s reason was unhinged.  The method of obtaining his freedom showed indeed considerable cunning, but also an audacity that was scarcely consistent with sanity.  The height of the prisoner was known, and his proportionate reach of arm; and it seemed incredible how he could have succeeded in reaching the parapet above his cell window; in that attempt he must have risked certain death.  His descent from the roof was explained by the presence of the rope.  The immediate means by which he surmounted the external wall were, of course, evident enough, since the rope was there also; but the question was, how did it come there?  The prisoner must have been assisted by some one outside the wall.  The warder who fired the shot which subsequently proved fatal had seen but one man; but the night was dark, and the whole affair had passed very rapidly.  Indeed, the convict had only fully shown himself when at the top of the wall, and the musket had been fired almost at a venture.  On the alarm being given, pursuit was at once attempted; but, under cover of the night, the fugitive had gained Bergen Wood.  The next morning his footsteps were traced so far, and it was proved that he was unaccompanied.  A cordon was placed round the wood, and the place itself thoroughly searched for many days.  It was deemed certain, from the report of the scouts who were made use of on such occasions, that the convict had not left that covert to seek shelter in any hamlet in the neighborhood; the quest was therefore still continued.  Not, however, until three weeks afterward was No. 421 discovered.  It was supposed that the unhappy fugitive had died of his wounds upon the very night of his escape, for the body was so decomposed that it could never have been identified but for its convict clothes; the nights had been wet and tempestuous, and it lay in an unsheltered part of the wood, a mere sodden heap of what had been once humanity.  The bullet that had been the cause of death was, however, detected in the remains.

What an end to the high-spirited, handsome lad that had been the pride of his mother, the joy of his betrothed!  What wonder that they sat over the bald record of it with bowed-down faces, and filled up the gaps with only too easily imagined horrors!  Each kept hold of the other’s hand, as though in sign of the dread bond between them, and sat close to one another in silence.  Presently Harry started up, at the sound of a latch-key in the house door.