Suddenly he uttered
a strange exclamation and fell back in his chair, pale, trembling,
almost fainting.
_The coin was a Jewish shekel, with a cross cut through at one side._
He pleaded sudden illness, and rode hastily homeward in a state of
indescribable agitation.
* * * * *
V.
YOUNG FORTINBRAS.
Barwood's strange and almost forgotten conception was thus at length
realized, and the interest with which it had inspired him intensely
revived. One of the fatal pieces was found. He would now fain have
overthrown the structure of probabilities which he had labored so
painfully to elaborate. He reviewed step by step all the details of his
former study; but no argument availed in the face of the extraordinary
corroboration now offered. The piece was "stamped with a mark in shape
like a cross," and the account of Irenaeus was verified.
That this fatal piece should appear in the hands of the people whom of
all others he most esteemed and with whom his own fortunes were most
intimately bound up, was a terrible shock.
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