Kidd. “My Lord Bellamont had them.”
Lord Chief Baron Ward. “If you had anything of disability upon you to make your defence, you should have objected it at the beginning of your trial. What you mean by it now, I cannot tell.”
In mercy to the memory of this wicked old judge, let us hope that this obtuseness was not feigned, and that he had really forgotten, though it is difficult to see how he could have done so, Kidd’s impassioned entreaties at the beginning of his trial on the preceding day for the production of these papers, the protracted discussion which took place thereon in which he had himself taken part and the undertaking that the papers should be produced.
When the jury had brought in their verdict, Kidd, asked whether he had anything to say for himself why he should not die according to the law, replied, “My lord, I have nothing to say, but that I have been sworn against by perjured and wicked people.” After sentence had been pronounced, he added, “My lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part, I am the innocentest person of them all, only I have been sworn against by perjured persons.”