hich he observed when
writing to the bootmaker,--these, he said, were personal matters which
he would not condescend to enter upon, adding, sarcastically,--

"That though they might not prove very damning omissions in defence of a
hackney-coach summons, he was quite aware that they might prove fatal to
a man who stood charged with murder."

After a number of witnesses were examined, whose testimony went to prove
slight and unimportant facts, Anthony Fagan was called to show that
a variety of bill transactions had passed between the prisoner and
Rutledge, and that on more than one occasion very angry discussions had
occurred between them in reference to these.

There were many points in which Fagan sympathized with the prisoner.
Curtis was violently national in his politics; he bore an unmeasured
hatred to all that was English; he was an extravagant asserter of
popular rights: and yet, with all these, and, stranger still, with a
coarse manner, and an address totally destitute of polish, he was in
heart a haughty aristocrat, who despised the people most thoroughly.
He was one of that singular class who seemed to retain to the very last
years of the past century the feudal barbarism of a bygone age.

Thus was it that the party who accepted his advocacy had to pay the
price of his services in deep humiliation; and many there were who felt
that the work was more than requited by the wages.

To men like Fagan, whose wealth suggested various ambitions, Curtis was
peculiarly offensive, since he never omitted an occasion to remind them
of their origin, and to show them that they were as utterly debarred
from all social acceptance as in the earliest struggles of their
poverty.

The majority of those in court, who only knew generally the agreement
between Curtis and Fagan in political matters, were greatly struck by
the decisive tone in which the witness spoke; and the damaging character
of the evidence was increased by this circumstance.

Among the scenes of angry altercation between the prisoner and Rutledge,
Fagan spoke to one wherein Curtis had actually called the other a
"swindler." Rutledge, however, merely remarked upon the liberties which
his advanced age entitled him to assume; whereupon Curtis replied,
"Don't talk to me, sir, of age! I am young enough and able enough to
chastise such as you!"

"Did the discussion end here?" asked the court.

"So far as I know, my Lord, it did; for Mr. Rutledge left my office so