"
"Is this a dream?" cried Godfrey, glancing instinctively at his hands,
on whose white well-formed fingers no trace of the recently enacted
tragedy remained, "did you really witness the scene you have just
described; tell me the truth. Mary, or by ----"
"Could these feeble limbs carry me to Ashton," said the girl,
interrupting the dreadful oath ere it found utterance, "or could this
rocking brain steady them, were I, indeed, able to rise from my bed--"
"Mathews," cried Godfrey, "what do you think of this?"
"That we should be off, or put such dreamers to silence."
"Be off! That's impossible. It would give rise to the suspicion that we
were the murderers. Besides, are we not both subpoenaed as witnesses
against him."
"I don't like it," said Mathews, gloomily. "The devil has revealed every
circumstance to the girl. What if she were to witness against us?"
"Nonsense! Who would take the evidence of a dream?" said Godfrey.
"I'm not so sure that it was a dream. You know her of old. She's very
cunning."
"But the girl's too ill to move from her bed. Besides, she never would
betray me."
"I'm not so sure of that. She's turned mighty religious of late. It was
only last night that I heard her pray to God to forgive her sinful soul;
and then she promised to lead a new life. Now I should not wonder if she
were to begin by hanging us.
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