Out of her sphere - University Library

WHAT GLARE WAITED FOR. 125
the most virulent of her detractors would
have dealt with her after this fashion.
It might be an accident, but it did not
look like it. She must have fallen with
outstretched arms, just as one would fall
who had been struck down by a blow from
behind ; and on the back of the skull there
was a fracture, which the medical men who
examined her deposed afterwards must
have been inflicted by some blunt instru-
ment or thick cudgel, but which would not
have been caused by the stones falling on
her. Indeed, it was singular that none of
them had fallen on the head. The body
was crushed and almost shapeless, and the
face was scarred, and swollen with the salt
water in which it had lain, so that all like-
ness to its former self was gone ; but the
back of the head had received no other in-
jury than that one blow, which, however,
the medical men said was in itself sufficient
to cause death.