“The frank boyish face that I remembered was gone, but his eyes were the same that had met mine that day when the prisoner had uttered his strange words to the jury.
“‘Yes,’ he went on, ‘you were man enough to acquit me, because you believed me innocent, and you were right. I repeat it here in this hour of death—for I shall not be alive an hour hence—I was innocent. It was another who committed the crime, and I would have died rather than betray him.’
“Still another long pause, and then again he went on with great effort—
“‘Aye, you saved my life, but I sometimes wonder if it was well you did so. I have seen no happy moment since then. I have wandered up and down the earth with the brand of Cain upon my life, and men have everywhere found it out, and turned from me.’ He reached out his hand to mine, and as I took it he said—‘I am getting weaker and weaker, and there is no good in my hanging on here any longer.’ He wrenched his hand away from mine and said—‘Heaven preserve and protect you!’ and before I could make a motion to detain him he had let go his hold, and a passing wave swept him away out of my sight, and out of my life for ever. Gentlemen, that is the end of my story, which, I assure you, is a true one. I was saved, of course, else I should not be here to tell the tale. I was picked up just at dark, when I had relinquished all hope.”
“Dall it, but that be a wonderful story,” replied several present.
“And how came it that he was so near being found guilty? He were innocent, I s’pose?” said one of the farmers.
“As innocent as you are yourself,” replied the stranger. “It was a case of mistaken identity. The prisoner resembled the actual murderer in a most remarkable degree, but the man who had committed the crime was a great friend of the prisoner, who would have suffered death rather than have betrayed his friend.”
“It’s a deal more than I would do for any man,” observed Brickett.
“Very likely not, but men are very differently constituted. It is perhaps more than any one of us would do.”
“The case bears out my argument,” said Slapperton; “but it is by no means a solitary instance. I will give you another. At a certain assizes, which it is not necessary for me to name, although many of my professional friends are intimately acquainted with the facts, during the trial of a prisoner for burglary there arose a difficulty—this being a clear proof of the prisoner’s identity.