"Ah, that is a royal device; yet how often in this business have the advisers of the Crown forgotten it?
"My lord, and gentlemen of the jury, I return from these conjectures to the indisputable facts of my defense.
"Mr. Gaunt may be alive, or may be dead. He was certainly alive on the fifteenth October, and it lies on the Crown to prove him dead, and not on me to prove him alive. But, as for the body that forms the subject of this indictment, it is the body of Thomas Leicester, who was seen on the sixteenth October, at one in the morning, drunk and staggering, and making for Hernshaw bridge, which leads to his mother's house; and on all his former visits to Hernshaw Castle he went on to his mother's, as I shall prove. This time, he never reached her, as I shall prove; but on his way to her did meet his death by the will of God, and no fault of man or woman, in Hernshaw Mere.
"Swear Sarah Leicester."
The Judge. I think you say you have several witnesses?
Prisoner. More than twenty, my lord.
The Judge. We cannot possibly dispose of them this evening. We will hear your evidence tomorrow. Prisoner, this will enable you to consult with your legal advisers, and let me urge upon you to prove, if you can, that Mr. Gaunt has a sufficient motive for hiding and not answering Mr. Atkins' invitation to inherit a large estate. Some such proof is necessary to complete your defense: and I am sorry to see you have made no mention of it in your address, which was otherwise able.
Prisoner. My lord, I think I can prove my own innocence without casting a slur upon my husband.
The Judge. You think? when your life is at stake. Be not so mad as to leave so large a hole in your defense, if you can mend it. Take advice.
He said this very solemnly; then rose and left the court.