"You say the pedler was a hundred yards behind my husband. Which of the two men was walking fastest?"
Thomas Hayes considered a moment. "Well, Dame, I think the Squire was walking rather the smartest of the two."
"Did the pedler seem likely to overtake him?"
"Nay. Ye see, Dame, Squire he walked straight on; but the pedler he took both sides of the road at onst, as the saying is."
Prisoner. Forgive me, Thomas, but I don't know what you mean.
Hayes (compassionately). How should ye? You are never the worse for liquor, the likes of you.
Prisoner (very keenly). O, he was in liquor, was he?
Hayes. Come, Dame, you do brew good ale at Hernshaw Castle. Ye needn't go to deny that; for, Lord knows, 't is no sin; and a poor fellow may be jolly, yet not to say drunk.
Judge (sternly). Witness, attend, and answer directly.
Prisoner. Nay, my lord, 't is a plain country body, and means no ill. Good Thomas, be so much my friend as to answer plainly. Was the man drunk or sober?