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servants unanimously declare their belief that you did not quit your apartments for the whole of that evening on which the fatal deed was committed: but as you were entirely shut up from the hour of twilight to almost midnight, the grounds of their belief are not satisfactory; your apartments, unhappily, having a private door leading to the garden, and from thence into the street.

True; their belief only, under such circumstances, is but weak evidence.

It was your custom, they say, to ring your bell for some slight refreshment between nine and ten o'clock, but on that night, most unfortunately, you omitted it.

My studies occupied me so entirely, that I forgot it.

I do most perfectly believe you: but who, sitting in judgment on attested facts, and compelled to pronounce sentence accordingly, will regard such asseveration? In short, my dear client, I am obliged to forewarn you, that if you still persist in refusing to account for the dagger being found in your chamber, and your previous