usband had wronged me cruelly and broken the law. 'T is true that I
raged against him, and he answered me not again. 'T is true, as that
witness said, that my bark is worse than my bite. I cooled, and then
felt I had forgotten the wife and the Christian in my wrath. I repented,
and, to be more earnest in my penitence, I did go and pray out o' doors
beneath those holy eyes of heaven that seemed to look down with chaste
reproach on my ungoverned heat. I left my fireside, my velvet cushions,
and all the little comforts made by human hands, that adorn our earthly
dwellings, but distract our eyes from God."

Some applause followed this piece of eloquence, exquisitely uttered. It
was checked, and the prisoner resumed, with an entire change of manner.

"Gentlemen, the case against me is like a piece of rotten wood varnished
all over. It looks fair to the eye; but will not bear handling.

"As example of what I say, take three charges on which the learned
sergeant greatly relied in opening his case:--

"1st. That I received Thomas Leicester in my bedroom.

"2d. That he went hot from me after Mr. Gaunt.

"3d. That he was seen following Mr. Gaunt with a bloody intent.

"How ugly these three proofs looked at first sight! Well, but when we
squeezed the witnesses ever so little, what did those three dwindle down
to?

"1st. That I received Thomas Leicester in an anteroom, which leads to a
boudoir, and that boudoir leads to my bedroom.

"2d. That Thomas Leicester went from me to the kitchen, and there, for a
good half-hour, drank my ale (as it appears), and made love to his old
sweetheart, Caroline Ryder, the false witness for the crown; and went
abroad fresh from _her_, and not from _me_.

"3d. That he was not (to speak strictly) seen following Mr. Gaunt, but
just walking on the same road, drunk, and staggering, and going at such
a rate that, as the crown's own witness swore, he could not in the
nature of things overtake Mr. Gaunt, who walked quicker, and straighter
too, than he.

"So then, even if a murder has been done, they have failed to connect
Thomas Leicester with it, or me with Thomas Leicester. Two broken links
in a chain of but three.

"And now I come to the more agreeable part of my defence. I do think
there has been no murder at all.

"There is no evidence of a murder.

"A body is found with the flesh eaten by fishes, but the bones and the
head uninjured. They swear a surgeon, who has examined the body, and