likely
then that she raved in delirium when she asserted that she would
kill her husband, and what more evident token of having her brain
overbalanced than that she should be running about the country
hiding in caves, carrying her child with her, under the impression
that her husband desired to take it from her, and perhaps do it an
injury. That was not the conduct of a sane woman. Why should a
father seek to rob her of her child? Could he suckle it? Did he
want to be encumbered with an unweaned infant? Then as to the
alleged murder. Was the testimony of the two men, Thomas and Samuel
Rocliffe, worth a rush? Was not this Thomas a fool, who had been
enveigled into a marriage with a tramp who called herself a
countess? Did he not show when under cross-examination that he was
a man of limited intelligence? And was his son Samuel much better?
There was a dense holly hedge betwixt them and the prisoner. He
put it to any candid person, who can see so clearly through a
holly bush as to be able to distinguish the action of parties on
the further side? These two witnesses had fallen into contradiction
as to what they had heard said, through the holly hedge, and it was
much easier to hear than to see athwart such an obstruction.

There was enough to account for the death of Jonas Kink without
having recourse to the theory of murder. He had received a blow
on his head, but he had received more blows than one; when a man
falls backwards and falls down into a kiln that yawns behind him
he would strike his head against the side more than once, and with
sufficient force to break in his skull and kill him. How could they
be sure that he was not killed by a blow against the bricks of the
kiln edge? The accused had charged the deceased with having tried
to murder her baby. That was what both the witnesses had agreed
in, though one would have it she had asserted he tried to poison
it, and the other that he had endeavored to strangle it. Such a
charge was enough to surprise a father, and no wonder that he
started back, and in starting back fell into the kiln, the existence
of which he had forgotten if he ever knew of it. He the counsel,
entreated the jury not to be led away by appearances, but to weigh
the evidence and to pronounce as their verdict not guilty.

No sooner had he seated himself than he was nudged in the back,
and Joe Filmer said, in a loud whisper, "Famous! Shake hands, and
have a drop o' Hollands." Then the ostler thrus