The confession of a murderer, written hurriedly in his cell just before his execution, and as the title suggests, found soon afterwards. The story is now effectively told in flashback. The doomed protagonist is a soldier, who on returning from services overseas in 1678, discovers that his brother is dying. The brothers are married to two sisters, and the protagonist hated his brother’s sister right up to er own death. As his brother dies, he expresses a wish that the protagonist and his wife adopt their orphaned child. The protagonist does so, but he despises the boy and the feeling appears to be mutual. After an unsuccessful attempt to drown the child, the protagonist kills him with a sword, and buries the body in the garden. He is now haunted by fears that the body will somehow surface!