and he moved one hand--the right. He was rather
stiff and awkward with his left since his accident.

This evidence was corroborated at every point by the testimony of
Samuel, who was quite positive that Mehetabel had struck Jonas on
the head. Like all stupid people, the two Rocliffes were ready to
swear to and maintain with tenacity those points which were false
or inaccurate, and to hesitate about asserting with confidence such
as were true, and could not be other than true. It is not always
in the power of a wise and observant man to discriminate between
facts and imagination, and a dull and undeveloped intelligence is
absolutely incapable of distinguishing between them.

The evidence of the surgeon was to the effect that Jonas Kink had
died from the consequences of fracture of the skull, but whether
caused by a blow from a stone or from a fall he was unable to
state. There were contusions on his person. He probably struck
his head against the bricks of the kiln as he fell or was thrown
into it. Abrasions of the skin were certainly so caused. When he,
the witness, arrived at the Punch-Bowl, Kink was already dead. He
might have been dead an hour, the body was not absolutely cold.
When asked whether the piece of ironstone on the table might have
dealt the blow which had broken in the skull of Jonas, he replied,
that it might have done so certainly, and the fracture of the skull
was quite compatible with the charge advanced that it had been so
caused.

The next witness summoned was Betty Chivers, who gave her evidence
with great reluctance, and with many tears. It was true that the
stone produced in court had been taken by her from the hand of the
accused, and that immediately on her return from the farm of Mr.
Colpus. Mehetabel had not told her that she had met her husband,
had not said that he was dead, but had admitted that she had armed
herself with the stone for the purpose of self-defence against
Jonas, her husband, who, she believed, desired to take the child
from her.

Mehetabel was asked if she had anything to say, and when she
declined to say anything, was committed for trial at the ensuing
assizes at Kingston.

Throughout the hearing she had been uneasy. The cell where she had
been confined was close to the court, and she had been obliged to
leave her child with a woman who had attended to her; and with this
person the infant would not be at rest. Faintly, and whenever there
was a lull in the court, s