They slept in
adjoining rooms, and Mrs. King had rushed in to Saunders.
Together they had descended the stairs. The door of the study
was open and a candle was burning upon the table. Their master
lay upon his face in the centre of the room. He was quite dead.
Near the window his wife was crouching, her head leaning against
the wall. She was horribly wounded, and the side of her face
was red with blood. She breathed heavily, but was incapable of
saying anything. The passage, as well as the room, was full of
smoke and the smell of powder. The window was certainly shut
and fastened upon the inside. Both women were positive upon
the point. They had at once sent for the doctor and for the
constable. Then, with the aid of the groom and the stable-boy,
they had conveyed their injured mistress to her room. Both she
and her husband had occupied the bed. She was clad in her dress
-- he in his dressing-gown, over his night clothes. Nothing had
been moved in the study. So far as they knew there had never
been any quarrel between husband and wife. They had always
looked upon them as a very united couple.
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