y met upon the field of honor, he should be accused
of being a midnight assassin, there was called the last witness for the
defense:

"Lord Rothermel!"

The entrance of this distinguished statesman, whose friendship for the
great Pitt kept him constantly in the public eye, caused little less
than a sensation. As he took the oath, I had a near view of him; his
dignified bearing, his age, and his notable integrity showing at every
turn, the tones of his voice filling the court with a peculiar
resonance while he deponed as follows:

"I come," he said, "as a messenger from Mr. Pitt, who regrets that his
Majesty's affairs, connected with the troublous times in France,
prevent his leaving London. I have his deposition, however, and the
case has been fully set before me by him, so that I feel I am in a
position to tell the whole truth of this disastrous affair and to set
Mr. Carmichael before the world as a free man.

"There existed between Mr. Pitt and the late Duke of Borthwicke, as the
world knows, a peculiar friendship. On the third morning after the
duke's death there came to Mr. Pitt a packet, taken from Stair House
and mailed about five of the morning upon which the duke died, directed
in the duke's hand, containing three things:

"First--The findings of the Lighthouse Commission.

"Second.--Some information from the French, a document of twenty-two
pages, writ in a cipher known to but five persons in the United
Kingdom, which paper alone convinced Mr. Pitt of the authenticity of
the document; and last, a personal letter, the original of which Lord
Rothermel begged to read before it be given to the jury:

"MY EVER DEAR PITT:

"When you receive these papers--the last intelligences I shall ever
send you--I, the writer of them, shall be no more.

"A great disappointment, one which I have not the heart to endure,
together with a return of my old trouble, for I have had three
bleedings from the lungs within a month, have cured me of the taste
of living, and, by a mere movement of the trigger, I end the game
to-night.

"It is a fancy of mine to take my leave of this earthly stay
surrounded by the little dear belongings of the one I love.

"There will be much talk back and forth concerning me. I pray you
bespeak me, if you will, a brave, insolent, selfish, and
unscrupulous man of many villainies, some wit and foresight, a
disrespecter of humanity, athirst fo