oubt your own
memory, going back over so long a time, do you wish to correct that
statement?"

"I suppose I do."

"What correction do you wish to make?"

"I don't think I did."

"Don't think you did what?"

"I don't think I signed two--"

"I really cannot hear the witness," said the judge

"You must speak out louder," said Mr. Furnival, himself speaking very
loudly.

"I mean to do it as well as I can," said Kenneby.

"I believe you do," said Furnival; "but in so meaning you must be
very careful to state nothing as a certainty, of the certainty of
which you are not sure. Are you certain that on that day you did not
witness two deeds?"

"I think so."

"And yet you were not certain twenty years ago, when the fact was so
much nearer to you?"

"I don't remember."

"You don't remember whether you were certain twelve months after the
occurrence, but you think you are certain now."

"I mean, I don't think I signed two."

"It is, then, only a matter of thinking?"

"No;--only a matter of thinking."

"And you might have signed the two?"

"I certainly might have done so."

"What you mean to tell the jury is this: that you have no remembrance
of signing twice on that special day, although you know that you have
acted as witness on behalf of Sir Joseph Mason more than twice on the
same day?"

"Yes."

"That is the intended purport of your evidence?"

"Yes, sir."

And then Mr. Furnival travelled off to that other point of Mr.
Usbech's presence and alleged handwriting. On that matter Kenneby
had not made any positive assertion, though he had expressed a very
strong opinion. Mr. Furnival was not satisfied with this, but wished
to show that Kenneby had not on that matter even a strong opinion. He
again reverted to the evidence on the former trial, and read various
questions with their answers; and the answers as given at that time
certainly did not, when so taken, express a clear opinion on the part
of the person who gave them; although an impartial person on reading
the whole evidence would have found that a very clear opinion was
expressed. When first asked, Kenneby had said that he was nearly sure
that Mr. Usbech had not signed the document. But his very anxiety to
be true had brought him into trouble. Mr. Furnival on that occasion
had taken advantage of the word "nearly," and had at last succeeded
in making him say that he was not sure at all. Evidence by means
of torture,--thumbscrew and suchlike,--