Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/81

 Rh "Miserable wretch that you are; was it not enough that you should deny your baptism, and renounce your religion yourself, but you must also employ false testimony, to put temptation in the way of those whom God has sustained by his grace? Now, look at your own statement, and give God the glory.

"You say you were at your window in the dusk of the evening, and that you recognized me at the distance of a musket-shot. What sort of eyes do you pretend to have?"

He was much confused at this, and said: "At any rate, I thought it was you."

"Write down that," said I to the register.

The President, seeing his prey about to escape from the snare, got into a violent passion, and accused me of abusing the witness. "You have," said he, "perplexed and confused him. I will not allow such proceedings."

"What," said I, "are you sorry that I have forced the truth from his lips? I looked up to you as my judge, but I now see reason to fear you as my persecutor."

I spoke to the register several times, requesting him to write down the last most decisive answer, but he looked to the President for permission, and he shook his head. I would not yield, and insisted upon it, that he should write down that the witness no longer said he had seen me, but only that he thought he had seen me.

The President wished to dictate it in modified terms, but I said to him, "I declare to you, that if this last answer be not written down, verbatim, as the witness spoke it, nothing shall induce me to sign my confrontation." So I gained my point, and it was written down. I scarcely believe I should have succeeded, but from the fear he entertained of my