In the second case, the object of vengeance was again an elderly man.  Of the ordinary family, all were absent at a country house, except the master and a female servant.  She was a woman of courage, and blessed with the firmest nerves; so that she might have been relied on for reporting accurately everything seen or heard.  But things took another course.  The first warning that she had of the murderers’ presence was from their steps and voices already in the hall.  She heard her master run hastily into the hall, crying out, “Lord Jesus!—­Mary, Mary, save me!” The servant resolved to give what aid she could, seized a large poker, and was hurrying to his assistance, when she found that they had nailed up the door of communication at the head of the stairs.  What passed after this she could not tell; for, when the impulse of intrepid fidelity had been balked, and she found that her own safety was provided for by means which made it impossible to aid a poor fellow creature who had just invoked her name, the generous-hearted creature was overcome by anguish of mind, and sank down on the stair, where she lay, unconscious of all that succeeded, until she found herself raised in the arms of a mob who had entered the house.  And how came they to have entered?  In a way characteristically dreadful.  The night was starlit; the patrols had perambulated the street without noticing anything suspicious, when two foot passengers, who were following in their rear, observed a dark-colored stream traversing the causeway.  One of them, at the same instant tracing the stream backward with his eyes, observed that it flowed from under the door of Mr. Munzer, and, dipping his finger in the trickling fluid, he held it up to the lamplight, yelling out at the moment, “Why, this is blood!” It was so, indeed, and it was yet warm.  The other saw, heard, and like an arrow flew after the horse patrol, then in the act of turning the corner.  One cry, full of meaning, was sufficient for ears full of expectation.  The horsemen pulled up, wheeled, and in another moment reined up at Mr. Munzer’s door.  The crowd, gathering like the drifting of snow, supplied implements which soon forced the chains of the door and all other obstacles.  But the murderous party had escaped, and all traces of their persons had vanished, as usual.

Rarely did any case occur without some peculiarity more or less interesting.  In that which happened on the following night, making the fifth in the series, an impressive incident varied the monotony of horrors.  In this case the parties aimed at were two elderly ladies, who conducted a female boarding school.  None of the pupils had as yet returned to school from their vacation; but two sisters, young girls of thirteen and sixteen, coming from a distance, had stayed at school throughout the Christmas holidays.  It was the youngest of these who gave the only evidence of any value, and one which added a new feature of alarm to the existing panic.  Thus it was that