“I may have said as much as that. Now you mention the words, I believe I did.”
“Do you think so now?”
“Certainly not. I cannot think so, after what I have seen.”
“Do you know Peter Goodwin, personally?”
“Very well. I have practised many years in this neighbourhood.”
“Whom, then, do you say that this unfortunate man here, whom we see alive, though a driveller, really is?”
“Peter Goodwin—he who was thought to have been murdered.[murdered.] We are all liable to mistakes.”
“You have testified in chief that, in your judgment, the two persons, of whom we have the remains here in court, were stunned at least, if not absolutely killed, by the blow that you think fractured each of their skulls. Now, I would ask if you think the prisoner at the bar possesses the physical force necessary to enable her to strike such a blow?”
“That would depend on the instrument she used. A human skull may be fractured easily enough, by a moderate blow struck by a heavy instrument.”
“What sort of instrument, for instance?”