"Did you not, in the first place, open a letter addressed to another?"
"My lord, I opened a letter brought to me with the initials of my name, and at the time I opened it I fully believed that it was intended for me."
"We will grant that, sir; but after you had opened it you must have known that it was for some other person."
"I will not deny that, my lord."
"Notwithstanding which, you apply to my lawyer, representing yourself as another person, to obtain sealed papers."
"I did, my lord; but allow me to say, that I never should have done so, had I not been warned by a dream."
"By a dream?"
"Yes, my lord. I had determined not to go for them, when in a dream I was ordered so to do."
"Paltry excuse! and then you break private seals."
"Nay, my lord, although I did go for the papers, I could not, even with the idea of supernatural interposition, make up my mind to break the seals. If your lordship will recollect, it was you who broke the seals, and insisted upon my reading the papers."