at in
Ameriky. I practised some myself, when a young man, though it was only
afore a justice-peace. _We_ used to hold that a witness needn't answer
ag'in himself."

"Is it, then, on account of criminating yourself that you answer thus
vaguely?"

"I decline answering that question," answered Ithuel, with an air of
dignity.

"Witness, have you any personal knowledge of the prisoner?"

"I decline answering that question, too."

"Do you know anything of such a person as Raoul Yvard?"

"What if I do?--I'm a native American, and have a right to form
acquaintances in foreign lands if I see it's to my interest, or it's
agreeable to my feelin's."

"Have you never served on board His Majesty's ships?"

"What majesty?--There's no majesty in Ameriky, as I know, but the
majesty of heaven."

"Remember that your answers are all recorded, and may tell against you
on some other occasion."

"Not lawfully; a witness can't be made to give answers that tell ag'in
himself."

"Certainly not _made_ to do it; still he may _do_ it of his own accord."

"Then it's the duty of the court to put him on his guard. I've heerd
that ag'in and ag'in in Ameriky."

"Did you ever see a vessel called le Feu-Follet?"

"How in natur' is a mariner to tell all the vessels he may happen to see
on the wide ocean!"

"Did you ever serve under the French flag?"

"I decline entering at all into my private affairs. Being free, I'm free
to sarve where I please."

"It is useless to ask this witness any further questions," Cuffe quietly
observed. "The man is well known in this ship, and his own trial will
most probably take place as soon as this is ended."

The Judge Advocate assented, and Ithuel was permitted to withdraw, his
contumacy being treated with the indifference that power is apt to
exhibit toward weakness. Still there was no legal proof on which to
convict the prisoner. No one doubted his guilt, and there were the
strongest reasons, short of a downright certainty, for supposing that he
commanded the lugger which had so recently fought the boats of the very
ship in which the court was sitting; but notwithstanding, supposition
was not the evidence the laws required; and the recent execution of
Caraccioli had made so much conversation that few would condemn without
seeing their justification before them. Things were really getting to be
seriously awkward, and the court was again cleared for the purpose of
consultation. In the private discou