ted.

Captain Hartley strove anxiously to undo the impression which his
evidence had already produced; but it was too late.

The judge addressed the jury, and began to sum up the evidence. He
remarked upon the knife with which the deed was perpetrated, being
proved and acknowledged to be the property of the prisoner--of its
being seen in his hand on the same day, and of his admitting the
fact--on the resemblance of the figure to that of the individual who
was seen to strike the blow, and on his inability to prove that he was
not that individual. He was proceeding to notice the singular scene
that had occurred, with regard to the principal witness and the
prisoner, when a shout was heard from the court-door, and a gentleman,
dressed as a clergyman, pressed through the crowd, and reaching the
side of the prisoner, he exclaimed, "My lord, and gentlemen of the
jury, _the prisoner, Harry Teasdale, is innocent_!"

"Thank Heaven!" exclaimed Captain Hartley.

The spectators burst into a shout, which the judge instantly
suppressed, and desired the clergyman to be sworn, and to produce his
evidence. "We are here to give it," said two others, who had followed
behind them.

The clergyman briefly stated that he had been sent for on the previous
evening to attend the death-bed of an individual whom he named, and
who had been wounded in the affray with Captain Hartley's crew, and
that, in his presence, and in the presence of the other witnesses who
then stood by his side, a deposition had been taken down from his lips
an hour before his death. The deposition, or confession, was handed
into court; and it set forth that his hand struck the fatal blow, and
with Harry Teasdale's knife, which he had found lying upon the stern
of his boat on the afternoon of the day on which the deed was
committed--and, farther, that Harry was not upon the beach that night.

The jury looked for a moment at each other--they instantly rose, and
their foreman pronounced the prisoner "_Not Guilty!_" A loud and
spontaneous shout burst from the multitude. Captain Hartley sprang
forward--he grasped his hand.

"I forgive thee, lad," said Harry.

Hartley led him from the dock--he conducted him to Fanny, whom he had
taken to an adjoining inn.

"Here is your father!--he is safe!--he is safe, my love!" cried
Augustus, as he entered the room where she was.

Fanny wept on her father's bosom, and he kissed her brow, and said,
"Bless thee."

"And canst thou