Justice Hide overruled the objection.
Amid much sensation, the witness gave the name of the sheriff of Cumberland, Wilfrey Lawson.
Continuing his evidence in a defiant manner, the witness said he remembered the deceased agent, James Wilson. He saw him last the day before his death. It was in Carlisle they met. Wilson showed witness a warrant with which he was charged for Ray's arrest, and told him that Ray had often threatened him in years past, and that he believed he meant to take his life. Wilson had said that he intended to be beforehand, for the warrant was a sure preventive. He also said that the Rays were an evil family; the father was a hard, ungrateful brute, who had ill repaid him for six years' labor. The mother was best; but then she was only a poor simple fool. The worst of the gang was this Ralph, who in the days of the Parliament had more than once threatened to deliver him—Wilson—to the sheriff—the other so-called sheriff, not the present good gentleman.
Ralph asked the witness three questions.
“Have we ever met before?”
“Ey, but we'll never meet again, I reckon,” said the man, with a knowing wink.
“Did you serve under me in the army of the Parliament?”
“Nowt o' t' sort,” with a growl.
“Were you captured by the King's soldiers, and branded with a hot iron, as a spy of their own who was suspected of betraying them?”
“It's a' a lie. I were never brandet.”