a few words to him,
and walked away. I went back to my own house, and, on the testimony of
the servants, was there the whole evening. I did not go out at all.
It is also admitted that no messenger of any sort came to me that
night, that no letters were received. Please bear these things clearly
in mind. Then I went out at midnight, on a dark night, with the intent
to murder 'him. Now think of the position. Would he not in all
probability be in bed, as far as I knew? Brunford is not a town of
late hours. Ordinarily, except when there is a social gathering, or
something of the sort, people retire to rest between ten and eleven
o'clock. But it is urged I went out with the intention of murdering
him, carrying the knife with me, and yet having no means of even
suspecting that he would be out; and that then I met him by chance, and
having the knife ready, killed him, and left the knife in his body. My
lord, and gentlemen, does not the chain of evidence entirely break? Is
there any connecting link here at all? Can you condemn a man upon such
evidence? Think of the tremendously long arm of coincidence which has
to be imagined before you can connect me with it!

"With regard to the evidence which the counsel for the prosecution has
urged with so much effect: I admit it is true. I was worried and
perplexed that night. I did not utter the words which he has
mentioned, but I do remember walking along a lane at no great distance
from Howden Clough. I was troubled about a personal matter, and, if I
may so put it, a secret matter, a matter which I cannot discuss, but
which does not even by a gossamer thread connect me with the crime of
which I am accused. And if you condemn me on such an evidence, then no
man's life is safe. No man can be worried and perplexed without, under
similar circumstances, being accused of a crime of which he would never
dream!"

Again Paul made the jury feel as he felt, see as he saw. The evident
sincerity of his tones, the force of his language, language which I
have utterly failed to reproduce, carried conviction with every word.
For the time being, at least, they felt that such an accusation
bordered on the edge of the absurd, and to say the least of it, there
was a tremendous gulf which had to be filled up, and that to fill it up
by the belief in the long arm of coincidence, and to commit a man to
the scaffold because of it, would be criminal indeed.

"There's only one point more th