Excuse for so doing,
That he apprehended (or Words to that Effect) he had a Promise under the
Dean's own Hand, of the Dean and Chapter's Commissaryship."

This I have attested, and what Weight the Sanction of an Oath will add
to it, I am willing and ready to give.

As for Mr. Ricard's feeble Attestation, brought to shake the Credit of
this firm and solemn one, I have nothing to say to it, as it is only an
Attestation of Mr. Ricard's Conjectures upon the Subject.--But this I
can say, That I had the Honour to be at the Deanery with the learned
Counsel, when Mr. Ricard underwent that most formidable Examination you
speak of,--and I solemnly affirm, That he then said, He knew nothing at
all about the Matter, one Way or the other; and the Reasons he gave for
his utter Ignorance, were, first, That he was then so full of Concern,
at the Difference which arose between two Gentlemen, both his Friends,
that he did not attend to the Subject Matter of it,--and of which he
declared again he knew nothing at all. And secondly, If he had
understood it then, the Distance would have put it out of his Head by
this Time.

He has since scower'd his Memory, I ween; for now he says, That he
apprehended the Dispute regarded something in the Dean's Gift, as he
could not naturally suppose, &c. 'Tis certain, at the Deanery, he had
naturally no Suppositions in his Head about this Affair; so that I with
this may not prove one of the After-Thoughts you speak of, and not so
much a natural as an artificial Supposition of my good Friend's.

As for the formidable Enquiry you represent him as undergoing,--let me
intreat you to give me Credit in what I say upon it,--namely,--That it
was as much the Reverse to every Idea that ever was couch'd under that
Word, as Words can represent it to you. As for the learned Counsel and
myself, who were in the Room all the Time, I do not remember that we,
either of us, spoke ten Words. The Dean was the only one that ask'd Mr.
Ricard what he remembered about the Affair of the Sessions Dinner; which
he did in the most Gentleman-like and candid Manner,--and with an Air of
as much Calmness and seeming Indifference, as if he had been questioning
him about the News in the last Brussels Gazette.

What Mr. Ricard saw to terrify him so sadly, I cannot apprehend, unless
the Dean's Gothic Book-Case,--which I own has an odd Appearance to a
Stranger; so that if he came terrified in his Mind there, and with a
Resolution not to p