It appeared, however, that he had consumed much more time on the road than could be fairly accounted for; for two or three people had met him on the way before he reached Forni; and then Antonio Guerra could speak as to the exact hour of his passing.  This discrepancy he attempted to explain by saying, that after seeing Mendez on the ground, dead—­as he believed—­he had been so agitated and alarmed that he did not like to present himself at Malfi’s house, lest he should excite observation.  He had also spent some time in deliberating whether or not he should mention what he had seen; and he had made up his mind to do so on his arrival, but was deterred by everybody’s asking him, when he entered the room, what he had done with Mendez—­a question that seemed to imply a suspicion against himself.

This tale, of course, was not believed:  indeed his whole demeanour on the night in question tended strongly to his condemnation; added to which, Malfi, who had been his friend, testified that not only had Ripa betrayed all the confusion of guilt during the walk from his house to Forni, but that having hold of his arm, he had distinctly felt him tremble as they passed the spot where Mendez was subsequently discovered.

With regard to Mendez himself, it appeared that when found he was in a state of insensibility, and he was still too weak to give evidence or enter into any particulars; but when, under proper remedies, he had recovered his senses, Faustina Malfi, his sister—­to whose house he had been carried—­asked him if Giuseppe Ripa was not the assassin; and he answered in the affirmative.

Giuseppe was thrown into prison to await his trial; and having public opinion, as well as that of the authorities against him, he was universally considered a dead man.  The only person that adhered to him was Bianca, who visited him in the jail, and refused to believe him guilty.  But if he was innocent, who was the criminal?  It appeared afterwards that Ripa himself had his own suspicions on that subject, but as they were founded only on two slight indications, he felt it was useless to advance them.

In the meantime Gaspar Mendez was slowly recovering the injuries he had received, and was of course expected to give a more explanatory account of what had happened to him after he left Forni on his way to Alessandro Malfi’s.  That he had been robbed as well as wounded was already known—­his brother and sister having found his pockets empty and his watch gone.  The explanation he could give, however, proved to be very scanty.  Indeed, he seemed to know very little about the matter, but he still adhered to his first assertion, that Ripa was the assassin.  With regard to the money he had lost, there was necessarily less mystery, since it consisted of a sum that he was carrying to his sister, and was indeed her property, being the half share of some rents which he had received on that morning, the produce of two houses in the