uried with them--in
other words, that the body had been stripped of all but the under
garment, previous to its interment. The evidence, nevertheless, of the
Black Prophet and of Red Rody was conclusive. The truth, however, of
most if not of all the details, but not of the fact itself, was denied
by old Dalton, who had sufficiently recovered from his illness, to be
present at the investigation. The circumstances deposed to by the
two witnesses were sufficiently strong and home to establish the fact
against him, although he impugned the details as we have stated, but
admitted that--after a hard battle with weighty sticks, he did kill
Sullivan with an unlucky blow, and left him dead in a corner of the
field for a short time near the Grey Stone. He said that he did not bury
the body, but that he carried it soon afterwards from the field in which
the unhappy crime had been committed, to the roadside, where he laid it
for a time, in order to procure assistance. He said he then changed his
mind, and having become afraid to communicate the unhappy accident
to any of the neighbors, he fled in great terror across the adjoining
mountains, where he wandered nearly frantic until the approach of
day-break the next morning. He then felt himself seized with an
uncontrollable anxiety to return to the scene of conflict, which he
did, and found, not much to his surprise indeed, that the body had been
removed, for he supposed at the time that Sullivan's friends must have
brought it home. This he declared was the truth, neither more nor less,
and he concluded by solemnly stating, that he knew no more than the
child unborn what had become of the body, or how it disappeared. He
also acknowledged that he was very much intoxicated at the time of the
quarrel, and that were it not for the shock he received by perceiving
that the man was dead, he thought he would not have had anything beyond
a confused and indistinct recollection of the circumstance at all.
He admitted also that he had threatened Sullivan in the market, and
followed him closely for the purpose of beating him, but maintained that
the fatal blow was not given with an intention of taking his life.

The fact, on the contrary, that the body had been privately buried
and stripped before interment, was corroborated by the circumstance of
Sullivan's body-coat having been found the next morning in a torn and
bloody state, together with his great coat and hat; but indeed, the
impression upo