foremost.

"Now for this letter," said Dr. Upround, holding council with himself;
"evidently a good clerk, and perhaps a first-rate scholar. One of the
very best Greek scholars of the age does all his manuscript in printing
hand, when he wishes it to be legible. And a capital plan it is--without
meaning any pun. I can read this like a gazette itself."

"REVEREND AND WORSHIPFUL SIR,--Your long and highly valued kindness
requires at least a word from me, before I leave this country. I have
not ventured into your presence, because it might place you in a very
grave predicament. Your duty to King and State might compel you with
your own hand to arrest me; and against your hand I could not strive.
The evidence brought before you left no choice but to issue a warrant
against me, though it grieved your kind heart to do that same. Sir, I
am purely innocent of the vile crime laid against me. I used no fire-arm
that night, neither did any of my men. And it is for their sake, as well
as my own, that I now take the liberty of writing this. Failing of me,
the authorities may bring my comrades to trial, and convict them. If
that were so, it would become my duty as a man to surrender myself,
and meet my death in the hope of saving them. But if the case is sifted
properly, they must be acquitted; for no fire-arm of any kind was in my
boat, except one pair of pistols, in a locker under the after thwart,
and they happened to be unloaded. I pray you to verify this, kind sir.
My firm belief is that the revenue officer was shot by one of his own
men; and his widow has the same opinion. I hear that the wound was in
the back of the head. If we had carried fire-arms, not one of us could
have shot him so.

"It may have been an accident; I can not say. Even so, the man whose
mishap it was is not likely to acknowledge it. And I know that in a
court of law truth must be paid for dearly. I venture to commit to your
good hands a draft upon a well-known Holland firm, which amounts to 78
pounds British, for the defense of the men who are in custody. I know
that you as a magistrate can not come forward as their defender; but
I beg you as a friend of justice to place the money for their benefit.
Also especially to direct attention to the crew of the revenue boat and
their guns.

"And now I fear greatly to encroach upon your kindness, and very
long-suffering good-will toward me. But I have brought into sad trouble
and distress with her family--wh