The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-04-18
a sum of money to be devoted to my re-

sum OI money 70 DC oSVOteu tO my te- search
 At first this mosey was spent in books, for soon exhausted all that the best pub. lie and private libraries of New York con- tained on my speciality. did not cum- Der my small rooms with the standard treatises, or with long sets of volumes to he found in every collection. but took keen delight in gathering together re- ports of trials for poisoning, not only in America and England, but in France, Germany, and especially in Italy. had copies made for me from the secret archives of France and thus, for instance, obtained the interrogatories which con- fitmed the contemporary suspicious as to the cause of the death of Louvois. Cor respondents in Italy sent me the useful fragments of unpublished memoirs as frank as those of Benvenuto Cellini or Gas snova de Seingalt, and as useful in the understanding of the past. Many a strange and tortuous transaction settled by the sudden hand of death was able to read by the light of modern science, and to explain as clearly as Sir David Brewster explained the mystery of the le- zion of devils which appeared at mid night to Cellini in the Colosseum at Rome three centuries and half ago.
 Besides the books about poisoning, l had the poisons themselves. arranged in chronological order collection of the famous poisons of history, and in little vials on a single shelf of a bookcase might be seen the hemlock draught of Socrates the potion which Locusta got ready at the bidding of Nero the famous poison of the Borgias (far simpler and far more easy to counteract than its reputa- ton warranted) !; the curious substances composing the candle which lighted Pope Clement VII. to his death the mixture, also Italian, which Catherine de Medicis gave to Charles K ;the subtle perfume, as the bouquet of Adrienne Lecoureur was charged; the succession powder of the Marquise de Brinvilliers; the unpre- tending but efficacious dose given by Madame Lafarge to her husband: and, worse than all, the Italian acqHa tefana, colorless ard odorless, yet so deadly that single drop administered once a week caused death at the end of two years, during which time the very slightest ail- ment was inevitably fatal. have stood before that little case of poisons hour after hour in rapt contemplation of the awful possibilities of the destruction pent up within the scant score of tiny vials.
 In time my researches were noised abroad; l was known as an earnest stu. dent; was called upon to testify as an expert and was soon recognized as an authority on toxicology. My testimony decided more than one case, and more than once mans life hung on the words that fell from my lips. In the great Hun gerford trial, it was my original investi. gation and my startling experiment, re- psated in court before the jury. which re- vealed the prisoners guilt incontroverti- ply, in spite of the feeble protests of a professor of analytical chemistry, the poor ignorant creature whom the defense had relied on to combat me. suppose I ought not to call him ignorant now, as he has heard me testify so often that even he must have been forced to pick up little knowledge of the elementary principles of toxicology.
 It was at this time, just as my position was assured, that strange thing hap pened to mel fell in love. l was in court bearing witness against young man named Morgan, who was accused of having poisoned his father. Before had sad twenty words became conscious of a look of intense appeal in the face of a beautiful girl sitting just below me. l turned my head so as not to see her, but her large mournful eyes rose before me, and the wistful twitch of her mouth | could not but remember. caught sight of the prisoners face, and in a second was assured that the tall, D ale creature with the sad and pitiful expression was his sister. A minute more and my plan was made; my testimony, which was wont to be firm and unhesitating, be- came weak and wavering. The counsel for the defense was clever man, and he saw the opening had left for him, and in five minutes of hurried cross-examina- ton he got from me just the evidence his case needed. By great good fortune the prosecution had also engaged the absurd old professor of analytical chemistry, and the counsel for the defense had no diff ficulty in turning the feeble old fellow inside out and in revealing the emptiness within. The jury acquitted Wilfred Morgan with out leaving their seats, and within six months Lillian, his sister, was my bride.
 We made a wedding trip to Europe, and we did what all newly married couples are won't to do. We wandered through Scotland and England, and we spent a few days in London, where found little to interest me. Life in hum- drum England is tame to man whose thoughts are set on the more mysterious tragedies of human existence. We paused in Paris while picked up rare volumes, long lacking on my shelves. We walked in Sutherland and rowed on Lake Geneva by moonlight under the shadow of Mont Blanc. We crossed into Italy, and here felt my interest in humanity revive. We were happy. as man may be once in his life at least, for little space. We found our happiness in each other, and each enjoyed the others pleasure. At times it has seemed to me that the mem ory of this happiness has embittered the sorrow which followed it swiftly. In a dream