asked the prisoner, before several
witnesses, if she would permit him to drag that piece of water
by the side of which Mr. Gaunt was heard to cry for help and,
after that seen no more.

"The prisoner did not reply, but Mr. Houseman, her solicitor, a
very worthy man, who has, I believe, or had, up to that moment,
a sincere conviction of her innocence, answered for her, and
told Mr. Atkins he was welcome to drag it or drain it. Then the
prisoner said nothing. She fainted away.

"After this, you may imagine with what expectation the water
was dragged. Gentlemen, after hours of fruitless labor, a body
was found.

"But here an unforeseen circumstance befriended the prisoner.
It seems that piece of water swarms with enormous pike and
other ravenous fish. These had so horribly mutilated the
deceased, that neither form nor feature remained to swear by;
and, as the law wisely and humanely demands that in these cases
a body shall be identified beyond doubt, justice bade fair to
be baffled again. But lo! as often happens in cases of murder,
Providence interposed and pointed with unerring finger to a
slight, but infallible mark. The deceased gentleman was known
to have a large mole over his left temple. It had been noticed
by his servants and his neighbors. Well, gentlemen, the greedy
fish had spared this mole,--spared it, perhaps, by His command,
who bade the whale swallow Jonah, yet not destroy him. There it
was, clear and infallible. It was examined by several
witnesses, it was recognized. It completed that chain of
evidence, some of it direct, some of it circumstantial, which I
have laid before you very briefly, and every part of which I
shall now support by credible witnesses."

He called thirteen witnesses, including Mr. Atkins, Thomas Hayes, Jane
Banister, Caroline Ryder, and others; and their evidence in chief bore
out every positive statement the counsel had made.

In cross-examining these witnesses, Mrs. Gaunt took a line that
agreeably surprised the court. It was not for nothing she had studied a
hundred trials, with a woman's observation and patient docility. She had
found out how badly people plead their own causes, and had noticed the
reasons: one of which is that they say too much, and stray from the
point. The line she took, with one exception, was keen brevity.

S