t the
wife, or if he be accused the next heir may have it against him. The
appellant must be heir general to the deceased, and his heir male (for
by _Magna Charta_ a woman cannot have an appeal of death for any but her
husband) and in the appeal also it must be set forth how the appellant
is heir unto the deceased. As to the time in which an appeal may be
brought, it is by the Statute of Gloucester[86] restrained within a year
and a day from the time of the deed done. There is great nicety in all
the proceedings on appeals of death and everything must be set forth
with the greatest exactness imaginable. The appellant hath also the
liberty of pleading as many pleas, or to speak more properly, to take
issue on as many points as he thinks fit. He is tried by a jury, and on
his being found guilty, the appellant hath an order for his execution
settled by the Court; but when the appellee is acquitted, the appellant
is chargeable with damages on such a prosecution, provided there appear
to have been no just cause for the commencement thereof.

But to return to the case of Cluff, which led us into this discourse.
The evidence at his trial upon the appeal was, as to its substance thus.
Mrs. Diana Payne, at the Green Lettuce in Holborn, deposed that the
prisoner James Cluff and the deceased Mary Green were both of them her
servants; that about a quarter of an hour before Mary Green died, she
saw the prisoner carry out a pot of drink; that while she was walking in
the tap-house with her child in her arms, she saw Mary Green go down
into the cellar and bring up two pints of drink, one for a customer and
another for herself, which she carried into a box where she was at
dinner; that about four or five minutes before the accident happened,
Cluff came in, and went to the box to the deceased, and in about four
minutes cried out, _Madam, pray come hither_; that the witness thereupon
went to the door of the box and saw the deceased on her backside on the
floor, and the prisoner held her up by the shoulders, while the blood
ran from her in a stream; that on seeing her, she said to the prisoner,
_James, what have you done?_ To which he answered, _Nothing, Madam._
Whereupon this evidence enquired whether he had seen her do anything to
herself, he replied. _No_, the deceased at that time neither speaking
not stirring, but looking as if she were dead. However, the prisoner at
that time said he saw her have a knife in her hand in the cellar, an