"You may withdraw, Mr.——ahem?" said the Home Secretary, addressing the police-officer.
"Crisp, my lord—Crisp is my name."
"Oh! very good, Mr. Frisk. You may withdraw, Mr. Frisk," repeated the Minister.
And the police-officer retired accordingly, marvelling how the examination could possibly be conducted in a proper manner without his important presence.
The magistrate commenced by informing Henry Holford of the accusation laid against him by Crisp, and then cautioned him in the usual manner to beware of what he said, as anything he uttered might be used in evidence against him.
"I have no desire to conceal or deny a single particle of the whole truth," returned Holford. "I acknowledge that I fired at the Queen and Prince Albert—and with pistols loaded with ball, too."
"No—there you are wrong," exclaimed Jem; "for I loaded the pistols myself, and I took good care only to put powder into them."
Holford cast a glance of unfeigned surprise on his friend.
"Yes," continued the latter, "what I say is the truth. Your manner was so strange when you came to me to borrow the pistols, that I feared you meant to make away with yourself. I did not like to refuse to lend you the weapons—particularly as I knew that if you was really bent on suicide, you could do it in other ways. But I was resolved that my pistols should not help you in the matter; and I only charged them with powder. Then I followed you all the way down to the Park; and as you did not stop anywhere, I know that you couldn't have either bought balls or altered the charge of the pistols."
"This is important," said the magistrate to the Home Secretary.