e some papers, but my Lord Bellomont keeps them from me,
so that I cannot bring them before the Court!"

Bradingham and other members of the crew admitted that they understood
from Kidd that the captured ships were sailing under French passes.
Kidd, having been convicted of murder, was now allowed to fetch in
witnesses as to his character as a man and a sailor previous to the
fatal voyage. One Captain Humphrey swore that he had known Capt. Kidd
in the West Indies twelve years before. "You had a general applause,"
said he, "for what you had done from time to time."

_The Lord Chief Baron_. "That was before he was turned pirate."

Captain Bond then declared:

"I know you were very useful at the beginning of the war in the West
Indies."

Colonel Hewson put the matter more forcibly and made no bones of
telling the Court:

"My Lord, he was a mighty man there. He served under my command there.
He was sent to me by the order of Colonel Codrington."

_The Solicitor General_. "How long was this ago?"

_Colonel Hewson_. "About nine years ago. He was with me in two
engagements against the French, and fought as well as any man I ever
saw, according to the proportion of his men. We had six Frenchmen
(ships) to deal with, and we had only mine and his ship."

_Kidd_. "Do you think I was a pirate?"

_Colonel Hewson_. "I knew his men would have gone a-pirating, and he
refused it, and his men seized upon his ship; and when he went this
last voyage, he consulted with me, and told me they had engaged him in
such an expedition. And I told him that he had enough already and
might be content with what he had. And he said that was his own
inclination, but Lord Bellomont told him if he did not go the voyage
there were great men who would stop his brigantine in the river if he
did not go."

_Thomas Cooper_. "I was aboard the _Lyon_ in the West Indies and this
Captain Kidd brought his ship from a place that belonged to the Dutch
and brought her into the King's service at the beginning of the war,
about ten years ago. And he took service under the Colonel (Hewson),
and we fought Monsieur Du Cass a whole day, and I thank God we got the
better of him. And Captain Kidd behaved very well in the face of his
enemies."

It may be said also for Captain William Kidd that he behaved very well
in the face of the formidable battery of legal adversaries.

As a kind of afterthought, the jury found him guilty of piracy along
with