right uns, at any rate,"
said the constable; "and it wasn't none of our fault that we hadn't
'em before." But though Constable Toffy was thus honest, there were
one or two in Heytesbury on that day who still persisted in declaring
that Sam was one of the murderers. Sir Thomas Charleys stuck to that
opinion to the last; and Lord Trowbridge, who had again sat upon the
bench, was quite convinced that justice was being shamefully robbed
of her due.

When the Vicar reached Bullhampton, instead of turning into his own
place at once, he drove himself on to the mill. He dropped Gilmore at
the gate, but he could not bear that the father and mother should not
know immediately, from a source which they would trust, that Sam had
been declared innocent of that great offence. Driving round by the
road, Fenwick met the miller about a quarter of a mile from his own
house. "Mr. Brattle," he said, "they have committed the two men."

"Have they, sir?" said the miller, not condescending to ask a
question about his own son.

"As I have said all along, Sam had no more to do with it than you or
I."

"You have been very good, Muster Fenwick."

"Come, Mr. Brattle, do not pretend that this is not a comfort to
you."

"A comfort as my son ain't proved a murderer! If they'd a hanged 'im,
Muster Fenwick, that'd a been bad, for certain. It ain't much of
comfort we has; but there may be a better and a worser in everything,
no doubt. I'm obleeged to you, all as one, Muster Fenwick--very much
obleeged; and it will take a heavy load off his mother's heart." Then
the Vicar turned his gig round, and drove himself home.

CHAPTER LII.

CARRY BRATTLE'S JOURNEY.

Mrs. Stiggs had been right in her surmise about Carry Brattle. The
confinement in Trotter's Buildings and want of interest in her life
was more than the girl could bear, and she had been thinking of
escape almost from the first day that she had been there. Had it
not been for the mingled fear and love with which she regarded Mr.
Fenwick, had she not dreaded that he should think her ungrateful, she
would have flown even before the summons came to her which told her
that she must appear before the magistrates and lawyers, and among a
crowd of people, in the neighbourhood of her old home. That she could
not endure, and therefore she had flown. When it had been suggested
to her that she should go and live with her brother's wife as
her servant, that idea had been hard to bear. But the