"How much did he give, or promise you, for answering as he directed you?"
"He gave me fifteen pound-notes."
Here Mr Forret and his counsel, losing all patience at seeing the case take this unexpected turn, interrupted the proceedings, the latter addressing the Judges, with vehemence, to the following purport:—
"My Lords, in my client's name, and in the names of justice and reason, I protest against proceeding with this woman's evidence, it being manifest that she is talking through a total derangement of intellect. At first she is dumb, and cannot answer nor speak a word, and now she is answering in total disregard of all truth and propriety. I appeal to your Lordships if such a farrago as this can be at all inferential or relevant?"
"Sir, it was but the other minute," said the junior Judge, "that you announced to us with great importance, that this woman was a person noted for honesty and worth, and one who would not tell a lie for the king's dominions. Why not then hear her evidence to the end? For my own part, I perceive no tokens of discrepancy in it, but rather a scrupulous conscientiousness. Of that, however, we shall be better able to judge when we have heard her out. I conceive that, for the sake of both parties, this woman ought to be strictly examined."
"Proceed with the evidence, Mr Wood," said the senior Lord, bowing to his assistant.
Tibby was reminded that she was on her great oath, and examined over again; but she adhered strictly to her former answers.
"Can you repeat any thing to the Court that he desired you to say?"
"Yes; he desired me, over and over again, to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
"And, in order that you should do this, he paid you down fifteen pounds sterling?"