it
to be what it is, large and prosperous. It has been urged that I am
far-seeing, careful, calculating, and that as a rule I am not a man who
acts upon sudden impulses. Now, my lord and jury, I ask you, would
such a man as I be likely to do this? I could have understood the
accusation if in the heat of the passion which I naturally felt when
the deceased man struck me a cowardly blow, I had, if I carried such a
knife with me, which I never did, seized it and struck the murderous
blow, and then in a state of panic rushed away for fear of the
consequences. But after several hours had elapsed, during which time I
should have time to think about it, and to realise the results of such
a deed, that I should then, in a cool and calculated fashion, seek out
a victim, strike the blow, and then leave the weapon in the body which
must be inevitably traced to me, is a deed of such madness that I can
only wonder that a gentleman with the erudition of the counsel should
have thought it worth while to mention it!"

From this point Paul went on to deal with another matter, of which the
counsel for the prosecution seemed to have taken no notice, but which,
put as he put it, strengthened his case very considerably.

"I want you to consider the circumstances connected with the accusation
again," he said presently. "It is known that I had only returned from
London the day before. It has come out in the evidence that I wrote a
letter to Wilson, asking him to meet me, and that Wilson replied
refusing to do so. It has also been proved that I waylaid him not far
from his own house, and that we had a quarrel. Concerning the nature
of that quarrel I am not going to speak, but a quarrel there was, this
I admit. Now, please bear in mind that I had only returned from London
the previous day; that I knew nothing of Wilson's possible whereabouts;
that I could have known nothing of his plans. It was impossible for me
to tell what he was going to do, or where he was going to be. It has
also come out in the evidence that I asked certain questions about him
on the afternoon of the day before the murder. I went from one place
to another where he had been, in order to find him--remember this was
not done in secret, but openly--therefore I must have been utterly
ignorant of his movements, or of his plans, except what I openly
gathered that afternoon. Then we had a quarrel. He struck me down,
and I, when I recovered from the blow, rose, said