clothes, could have lifted the body out of the ditch without being
covered with blood?'

"'No: perhaps not.'

"'Was there any means by which so much blood could have been accumulated
in the ditch, unless the body had been thrown there?'

"'I think not. The pool were too big.'

"'I have two more questions to ask, and I beg the special attention of
the jury to the answers. Is the ditch, or is it not, very thickly
overgrown with brambles and brushwood?'

"'Yes; there be a many brambles.'

"'Do you think that any single man could drag a heavy body from the
bottom of the ditch on to the bank, without severely scratching his
hands?'

"'No; I don't suppose he could.'

"'That is all I wish to ask.'

"Not being permitted to address the jury, it was all that he could do.
Then the Recorder summed up. God forgive him the fatal accuracy
with which he placed every link in a chain of evidence so condemning
that I confess poor George seemed almost to have been taken _in
flagrante delicto_. The jury withdrew; and my sweet Mistress Dorothy,
who had remained in court against my wish, suddenly dropped like an