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292 you swear away the life of an innocent person. 'You are perhaps on the threshold of the grave yourselfdo not in your eagerness for vengeance, or for justice, drag a victim with you thither, who as he stands beside you before the throne of the Almighty, will prove your last words to be a lie.'

"After this appeal to the consciences of his accuser and his judge, the young man recapitulated every circumstance that had occurred, from the summons of the stranger up to the moment of his being discovered in the ditch; but he had the mortification of perceiving that he was listened to by all parties with a perfect incredulity, which the examination of the witnesses that followed had no tendency to dispel.

"The two women servants declared that no one slept in the house but themselves and their masterthat he had gone to bed well on the preceding eveningthat the house door was shut, but not locked, and could not have been opened from without, but by picking the lock,the lock was pickedthey had heard nothing unusual during the night; and the first that came down stairs in the morning had stopped at her master's room to awaken him, as was customarythat on finding the door locked,