The judge at once supported the witness's objection; and the prisoner being told that he must absolutely confine himself to the matter before the court, proceeded. "Pray, Mr. Beauchamp, was the moon shining at the time of your return to Ryebury?"
"It was shining brightly," replied Beauchamp.
"Then it was by the light of the moon that you recognized me among the persons coming out of the miser's house?" demanded the prisoner.
"I did not say that I recognized you in the slightest degree," replied his former master, "till I found myself in the boat upon the water."
"Then you positively did riot recognize me at all at the miser's house!" said Harding, with a smile of triumph.
"I did not," answered Beauchamp; "as I said before, all I saw, on the opening of the door, were the forms of three men and a woman standing in the passage. As the moon was not shining directly on that side of the house, I could not distinguish their features so perfectly as to swear to any one of them; but the foremost of the men was exactly of your height and appearance, and I have already sworn, that I saw you in the boat after I recovered my recollection."
"Pray what space of time do you think had elapsed," Harding next demanded, "between the time of your return to Ryebury and your finding yourself in the boat!"
Beauchamp replied, that of course he could not exactly tell, but he imagined that it must have been more than an hour.
"If such was the case," said the prisoner, "then the moon, which you say was shining on the western side of the miser's house when you reached the door, must have set before you recovered your senses; and I should like to know how, without any light on a dark night, and with your thoughts confused, as they must have been, after such a blow as you describe, you could recognize me so as to swear to my identity, when, by your own account, you could not stand up in the boat even for a moment!"
"In the first place," answered Beauchamp, "the moon had not set, though she was setting, and her very position at the moment I did attempt to rise, showed me your features more distinctly than if she had been higher in the sky; for she shone at that moment under your hat. I was confused, certainly, and in that confusion I had very nearly called you by your name; but luckily I recollected in time the attack made upon my own person, and the extraordinary circumstances in which I was placed, or probably the consequences might have been fatal to me also."