self into the 'Swan'
with a key, and I told Sam Pott next morning."
Judge. Who is Sam Pott?
Culprit. Why, my stable-boy, to be sure.
Judge. Is he in court?
Culprit. I don't know. Ay, there he is,
Judge. Then you'd better call him.
Culprit (shouting). Hy! Sam!
Sam. Here be I. (Loud laughter.)
The judge explained, calmly, that to call a witness meant to put him in
the box and swear him, and that although it was irregular, yet he
should allow Pott to be sworn, if it would do the prisoner any good.
Prisoner's counsel said he had no wish to swear Mr. Pott.
"Well, Mr. Gurney," said the judge, "I don't think he can do you any
harm." Meaning in so desperate a case.
Thereupon Sam Pott was sworn, and deposed that Cox had told him about
this double.
"When?"
"Often and often."
"Before the murder?"
"Long afore that."
Counsel for the Crown. Did you ever see this double?
"Not I."
Counsel. I thought not.
Daniel Cox went on to say that on the night of the murder he was up
with a sick horse, and he saw his double let himself out of the inn the
back way, and then turn round and close the door softly; so he slipped
out to meet him. But the double saw him, and made for the garden wall.
He ran up and caught him with one leg over the wall, and seized a black
bag he was carrying off; the figure dropped it, and he heard a lot Of
money chink: that thereupon he cried "Thieves!" and seized the man; but
immediately received a blow, and lost his senses for a time. When he
came to, the man and the bags were both gone, and he felt so sick that
he staggered to the stable and drank a pint of neat brandy, and he
remembered no more till they pumped on him, and told him he had robbed
and murdered a gentleman inside the "Swan" Inn. "What they can't tell
me," said Daniel, beginning to shout, "is how I could know who has got
money, and who hasn't, inside the 'Swan' Inn. I keeps the stables, not
the inn: and where be my keys to open and shut the 'Swan'? I never had
none. And where's the gentleman's money? 'Twas somebody in the inn as
done it, for to have the money, and when you find the money, you'll
find the man."
The prosecuting counsel ridiculed this defence, and inter alia asked
the jury whether they thought it was a double the witness Lamb had
caught robbing in the inn three years ago.
The judge summed up very closely, giving the evidence of every witness.
What follows is a mere synops
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