`None of your gammon;' but he was dead. I think the
thing must have struck something on the way, and so swerved against his
head. I wished not to kill the fellow--I be damned if I did."

The jurymen looked at each other with a significant and approving air,
which could be translated as accidental death. Gabriel touched the
merchant upon the shoulder, "You should have said to him, that you
merely wished to kill a mosquito upon the wall."

"Capital idea," cried the defendant. "I be damned if it was not a
mosquito eating my molasses that I wished to kill, after all."

At that moment one of the jurymen approached the merchant, and addressed
him in a low voice; I could not hear what passed, but I heard the
parting words of the juryman, which were, "All's right!" To this
dispenser of justice succeeded another; indeed, all the jurymen followed
in succession, to have a little private conversation with the prisoner.
At last the judge condescended to cease his whittling, and come to make
his own bargain, which he did openly:

"Any good saddles, Fielding? mine looks rather shabby."

"Yes, by Jingo, a fine one, bound with blue cloth, and silver nails--
Philadelphia-made--prime cost sixty dollars."

"That will do," answered the judge, walking back to his seat.

Ten minutes afterwards the verdict of manslaughter was returned against
the defendant, who was considered, in a speech from the judge,
sufficiently punished by the affliction which suck an accident must
produce to a generous mind. The court broke up, and Fielding, probably
to show how deep was his remorse, gave three cheers, to which the whole
court answered with a hurrah, and the merchant was called upon to treat
the whole company: of course he complied, and they all left the court
house. Gabriel and I remained behind. He had often tried to persuade
me to abandon my ideas of going to the States and Europe, pointing out
to me that I should be made a dupe and become a prey to pretended
well-wishers. He had narrated to me many incidents of his own life, of
his folly and credulity, which had thrown him from an eminent station in
civilised society, and had been the cause of our meeting in the Western
World. He forewarned me that I should be disappointed in my
expectations, and reap nothing but vexation and disappointment.

He knew the world too well, I knew nothing of it, and I thought that he
was moved by bitterness of spirit to rail so loud against it. He wou