He lit some candles, and hurriedly
examined the line. The first thing which struck him was that the four
letters which went to make up the word "dead" were about equi-distant
in the line of writing. Could it be? He hurriedly counted the words in
the line. There were sixteen of them. That is after the first, one of
the letters occurred at the commencement of every fifth word.
This was certainly curious. Trembling with nervousness he took a
pencil and wrote down the initial letter of every fifth word in the
message, thus:
Do not grieve for me, Edward my son, that I am thus suddenly and
D E a
wickedly done to death by rebel murderers, for naught happeneth
d m
but according to God's will. And now farewell, Edward, till we
a n
shall meet in heaven. My moneys have I hid, and on account thereof
s m o
I die unto this world, knowing that not one piece shall Cromwell
u n
touch. To whom God shall appoint shall all my treasure be, for
t a b
nought can I communicate.
c
When he had done he wrote these initials in a line:
DEadmansmountabc
He stared at them for a little--then he saw.
Pages:
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441