at does G. G. stand for?" Then he
told me his real name was Griffith Gaunt, and he had a wife in
Cumberland. "Go back to her," said I, "and ask her to forgive you." Then
he rode north, and I never saw him again till last Wednesday.

_Whitworth_ (satirically). You seem to have been mighty intimate with
this Thomas Leicester, whom you now call Griffith Gaunt. May I ask what
was, or is, the nature of your connection with him?

Mercy was silent.

_Whitworth._ I must press for a reply, that we may know what value to
attach to your most extraordinary evidence. Were you his wife,--or his
mistress?

_Mercy._ Indeed, I hardly know; but not his mistress, or I should not be
here.

_Whitworth._ You don't know whether you were married to the man or not?

_Mercy._ I do not say so. But--

She hesitated, and cast a piteous look at Mrs. Gaunt, who sat boiling
with indignation.

At this look, the prisoner, who had long contained herself with
difficulty, rose, with scarlet cheeks and flashing eyes, in defence of
her witness, and flung her prudence to the wind.

"Fie, sir," she cried. "The woman you insult is as pure as your own
mother, or mine. She deserves the pity, the respect, the veneration of
all good men. Know, my lord, that my miserable husband deceived and
married her under the false name he had taken. She has the
marriage-certificate in her bosom. Pray make her show it, whether she
will or not. My lord, this Mercy Vint is more an angel than a woman. I
am her rival, after a manner. Yet, out of the goodness and greatness of
her noble heart, she came all that way to save me from an unjust death.
And is such a woman to be insulted? I blush for the hired advocate who
cannot see his superior in an incorruptible witness, a creature all
truth, piety, purity, unselfishness, and goodness. Yes, sir, you began
by insinuating that she was as venal as yourself; for you are one that
can be bought by the first-comer; and now you would cast a slur on her
chastity. For shame! for shame! This is one of those rare women that
adorn our whole sex, and embellish human nature; and, so long as you
have the privilege of exchanging words with her, I shall stand here on
the watch, to see that you treat her with due respect: ay, sir, with
reverence; for I have measured you both, and she is as much your
superior as she is mine."

This amazing burst was delivered with such prodigious fire and rapidity
that nobody was self-possessed enough to stop