"Then," said the judge, "we shall need proof that the medal was not painted in when you were in prison too."
But that proof he had, and subsequently produced in the person of his landlord and the landlord's wife with whom he had lodged at Keswick.
Meanwhile he continued his questioning of me.
"You have heard Jervas Rookley describe the medal?"
"Yes."
"Is it the true description?"
"But incomplete," I answered, "for there are marks upon the medal. Upon one side is the face, but there are scratches upon that face, when it fell one day upon the stones. The forehead is indented, there is a mark lengthening the curve of the mouth, there is a scratch where the cravat meets the neck beneath the ear."
"How came these scratches?" asked Herbert.
"I dropped the medal out of my fob," said I, "when I was thrown from my horse on Coldbarrow Fell, the first time I came to Blackladies, and Jervas Rookley picked it up and gave it back to me."
There was a murmur amongst the spectators.