ess of me as you are."

On Monday, March 13, following the date of the words just quoted,
Spencer Cowper rode into Hertford, alighted at Mrs. Stout's house, and
dined with the ladies. Having left the house after dinner, in order that
he might attend to some business, he returned in the evening and supped
with the two women. Supper over, Mrs. Stout retired for the night,
leaving her daughter and the young barrister together. No sooner had the
mother left the room, than a distressing scene ensued.

Unable to control or soothe her, Spencer gently divided the clasp of her
hands, and having freed himself from her embrace, hastened from the room
and abruptly left the house. He slept at his lodgings; and the next
morning he was horror-struck on hearing that Sarah Stout's body had been
found drowned in the mill-stream behind her old home. That catastrophe
had actually occurred. Scarcely had the young barrister reached the
Market Place, when the miserable girl threw herself into the stream from
which her lifeless body was picked on the following morning. At the
coroner's inquest which ensued, Spencer Cowper gave his evidence with
extreme caution, withholding every fact that could be injurious to
Sarah's reputation; and the jury returned a verdict that the deceased
gentlewoman had killed herself whilst in a state of insanity.

In deep dejection Spencer Cowper continued the journey of the circuit.

But the excitement of the public was not allayed by the inquest and
subsequent funeral. It was rumored that it was no case of self-murder,
but a case of murder by the barrister, who had strangled his dishonored
victim, and had then thrown her into the river. Anxious to save their
sect from the stigma of suicide the Quakers concurred with the Tories in
charging the young man with a hideous complication of crimes. The case
against Spencer was laid before Chief Justice Holt, who at first
dismissed the accusation as absurd, but was afterwards induced to commit
the suspected man for trial; and in the July of 1699 the charge actually
came before a jury at the Hertford Assizes. Four prisoners--Spencer
Cowper, two attorneys, and a law-writer--were placed in the dock on the
charge of murdering Sarah Stout.

On the present occasion there is no need to recapitulate the ridiculous
evidence and absurd misconduct of the prosecution in this trial; though
criminal lawyers who wish to know what unfairness and irregularities
were permitted in such in