hand had been inflicted. The
men were notorious poachers, and were engaged in a poaching expedition
when the crime was committed. One of the accused was a young man,
scarcely more than a youth, but I had no doubt that he was the
cleverest of the gang. The men were convicted, but this young man
vehemently protested his innocence, and declared that he was not with
the gang that night. His manner impressed me so much that I began to
doubt whether some mistake had not been made. The injured keeper,
however, whose honesty I had no reason to doubt, declared that this
youth was really the man who knelt on his breast and inflicted the
grievous injury to his hand by nearly severing the thumb. He swore
that he had every opportunity of seeing him while he was committing
the deed, as his face was close to his own, and _their eyes met_.

Moreover, the young man's cap was found _close by the spot where the
assault took place_. About this there was no dispute and could be no
mistake, for the prisoner confessed that the cap was his, adding,
however, that he _had lent it on that night to one of the other
prisoners_. The youth vehemently protested his innocence after the
verdict was given.

So far as he was concerned I was _not_ satisfied with the conviction.
"Is it possible," I asked myself, "that there can have been a
mistake?" I did not think that in the excitement of such a moment, and
during so fearful a struggle with his antagonist, with their faces _so
close together_ that they stared into each other's eyes, there was
such an opportunity of seeing the youth's face as to make it clear
beyond any doubt that he was the man who committed the crime. The
jury, I thought, had judged too hastily from appearances--a mistake
always to be guarded against.

I invited the prosecuting counsel to come to my room, and asked him,
"Are you satisfied with that verdict so far as the _youngest prisoner_
is concerned?"

"Yes," he said; "the jury found him 'Guilty,' and I think the evidence
was enough to justify the verdict."

"I _do not_," I said, "and shall try him again on another indictment."
There was another involving the same evidence.

I considered the matter very carefully during the night, and weighed
every particle of evidence with every probability, and the more I
thought of it the more convinced I was that injustice had been done.

First of all, to prevent the men who I was convinced were rightly
convicted from entertaining any dou