led by the foreman under guard of the constable, went out across the road and over the fence into the field where Mr. Terry and Coristine found the dead Harding lying.  The place was well marked by the beaten down grass, blood stains on a large boulder and on the ground, and by the finding of a loaded revolver.  Carefully examining the spot, the detective pointed out, at last, the very root, not more than three quarters of an inch thick, which formed a loop on the surface of the ground, in which the unfortunate man’s foot had caught, precipitating him upon the stone.  Every member of the jury having examined it, Mr. Bangs took out his knife and cut it away in order to prevent similar accidents in future.  The coroner did not think the blow sufficient to kill the man, though it must have rendered him insensible.  The killing was done by means of the knives.  These were identified by the Squire and Timotheus as belonging to the Bridesdale kitchen.  There was neither time nor necessity for prolonging the examination.  Matilda Nagle and her son Monty, with much satisfaction, confessed that they had followed the Bridesdale force and had seen the man fall, that she had turned him over on his back and struck him to the heart with the knife she carried, which she left there, because she had no further need for it.  Her son had followed her example.  The jury retired, or rather the court retired from the jury, and, when Squire Walker called the coroner in again, he read the second verdict, to the effect that the deceased Harding, while in a state of insensibility owing to a fall, had been murdered by one Matilda Nagle with a table knife, and that her son, commonly known as Monty, was accessory to the deed.  The double inquest was over, and the bodies were transferred to coarse wooden shells, that of Nagle being claimed by his fellow detective, and Harding’s being left for a time unburied in case some claimant should appear.

The magistrates, and Mr. Bangs as clerk, now sat in close session for a little over half an hour, inasmuch as they had already come to certain conclusions in the office at Bridesdale.  One result of their conference was the arrest of the madwoman and her son, much to the regret of the Squire, Mr. Errol, and many more.  Rigby was ordered to treat them kindly, and convey them, with a written order signed by the three justices, to the nearest town, there to hand them over to the police authorities to be forwarded to their appropriate lunatic asylum.  Old Mr. Newberry, whom the case had very much affected, volunteered to accompany the criminals, as he had to go to town at any rate, and offered to drive them and the constable there, and take his wife as company for the insane Matilda.  Accordingly, he brought round the waggon in which he had driven up, and took the constable and his prisoners away towards his own house, which was on the road to their destination.  The Squire and his battalion were much relieved to find that they were not responsible for Harding’s