“You knew the late Darcy Martin, father of the last proprietor of this estate?”
“Intimately.”
“You baptized his two children, born at the same birth. State what you remember of the circumstance.”
“I was sent for to the castle to give a private baptism to the two infants, and requested that I would bring the vestry-book along with me for the registration. I did so. The children were accordingly christened, and their births duly registered and witnessed.”
“Can you remember the names by which they were called?”
“Not from the incident in question, though I know the names from subsequent knowledge of them, as they grew up to manhood.”
“What means, if any, were adopted at the time to distinguish the priority of birth?”
“The eldest was first baptized, and his birth specially entered in the vestry-book as such; all the witnesses who signed the entry corroborating the fact by special mention of it under their signature. We also heard that the child wore a gold bracelet on one arm; but I did not remark it.”
“You have this vestry-book in your keeping?”
“No; Mr. Martin retained it, with some object of more formal registration. I repeatedly asked for it, but never could obtain it. At length some coolness grew up between us, and I could not, or did not wish to press my demand; and at last it lapsed entirely from my memory, so that from that day I never saw it.”