ble, guilt of the accused. If this were
otherwise, private malice could temporarily sit in judgment upon the
object of its hatred, however blameless, and be rewarded for perjury
by being allowed the use of our jails as places in which to satisfy
its vengeance. Such a view of the law made Sarah Althea the magistrate
at Stockton on the 14th of August, and Justice Swain her obsequious
amanuensis. Such a view of the law would enable any convict who had
just served a term in the penitentiary to treat himself to the luxury
of dragging to jail the judge who sentenced him, and keeping him
there without bail as long as the magistrate acting for him could be
induced to delay the examination.

The arrest of Justice Field was an attempt to kidnap him for a foul
purpose, and if the United States circuit judge had not released him
he would have been the victim of as arbitrary and tyrannical treatment
as is ever meted out in Russia to the most dangerous of nihilists,
to punish him for having narrowly escaped assassination by no act or
effort of his own.

CHAPTER XVIII.

HABEAS CORPUS PROCEEDINGS IN NEAGLE'S CASE.

This narrative would not be complete without a statement of the
proceedings in the United States Circuit Court, and in the United
States Supreme Court on appeal, in the _habeas corpus_ proceedings in
the case of Neagle, the deputy marshal, whose courageous devotion to
his official duties had saved the life of Justice Field at the expense
of that of his would-be assassin. We have already seen that Neagle,
being in the custody of the sheriff of San Joaquin county, upon a
charge of murder in the shooting of Judge Terry, had presented a
petition to the United States Circuit Court for a writ of _habeas
corpus_ to the end that he might thereby be restored to his liberty.

A writ was issued, and upon its return, August 17th, the sheriff of
San Joaquin county produced Neagle and a copy of the warrant under
which he held him in custody, issued by the justice of the peace of
that county, and also of the affidavit of Sarah Althea Terry, upon
which the warrant was granted. Neagle being desirous of traversing the
return of the sheriff, further proceedings were adjourned until the
22d of the month, and in the meantime he was placed in the custody of
the United States marshal for the district. On the 22d a traverse of the
return was filed by him stating the particulars of the homicide with
which he was charged as narrated abo