King!"
His lordship then called the attention of the jury to the law of the land;
particularly to that portion relating to their present duty; and the grand
jury presented me to the court, for feloniously taking a certain
promissory note from the house of Israel Lewis. The King's Attorney had
but one witness, and that was Lewis. He was called to the stand, permitted
to relate his story, and retire without any cross-examination on the part
of my Attorney; but that gentleman called up three respectable white men,
all of whom swore that they would not believe Israel Lewis under oath!
Then submitted the case to the jury without remark or comment, and the
jury, without leaving their seats, brought in a verdict of "NOT GUILTY."
Thus ended my first and last trial for theft! Oh, how my very soul
revolted at the thought of being thus accused; but now that I stood
justified before God and my fellow-men, I felt relieved and grateful; nor
could I feel anything but pity for Lewis, who, like Hainan, had been so
industriously engaged in erecting "a gallows fifty cubits high" for me,
but found himself dangling upon it He raved like a madman, clutched the
arm of the Judge and demanded a new trial, but he shook him off with
contempt and indignation, as though he had been a viper. In his wild fury
and reckless determination to destroy my character, he had cast a foul
stain upon his own, never to be effaced. I had felt bound to preserve my
reputation when unjustly assailed, but it had been to me a painful
necessity to throw a fellow-being into the unenviable and disgraceful
attitude in which Lewis now stood; and yet, he would not, and did not
yield the point, notwithstanding his ignominious defeat.

He very soon began to gather his forces for another attack upon me, and
followed the same direction for his accusation,--the land purchase.

The reader will recollect without further repetition, that as I could
purchase no land of the Canada Company, because of their indignation
against Lewis, I was glad to accept of the contract he had made with Mr.
Ingersoll, for lot number four in the colony; that I paid the sum
demanded, and took his assignment on the back of the contract, and as we
then were on good terms, it never occurred to me that a witness was
necessary to attest to the transaction. But after his failure to prove me
a thief; his next effort was to convict me of forgery! It will be
remembered that Lewis after selling out to me, returne