announced into the
room where the lady was sitting, asked her if the tale were true,
calling the late duke a thiever from the poor, a seducer of women,
a man drenched in all manner of villainy, and one whom he would
rather see her dead than married to. That he had declared that he
still loved and had always loved her, that his marriage was but the
result of a crazy jealousy, and besought her to promise him that
she would never marry the duke. It will be proven by two competent
witnesses that upon her refusing to do this, the accused had cried
out, 'I will save you the promising, for I swear he shall never
live to marry you.'

"It will be proven by a physician of repute that within ten minutes
of the time of the murder the accused was seen, hatless, walking
very fast or running away from Stair House toward his own home of
Arran, and this along a very secluded and unusual path.

"In conclusion, testimony will be brought to show that the day
before the murder the accused made an agreement with a boatman of
Leith to keep a boat ready for him at an hour's notice, either for
Ireland or France.

"It may be urged that this testimony, even if fully established, is
purely circumstantial, for that none saw the accused commit the
fatal deed. To this I would answer:

"The true question is, not what is the _kind_ of evidence in this
cause, but what is the result of it in your minds.

"If it fail to satisfy you of the guilt of the prisoner, if your
minds are not convinced, if you remain in doubt, you must acquit
him, be the evidence positive or presumptive, because the law
regards a man as innocent so long as any reasonable doubt of his
guilt exists. But if, on the contrary, you are convinced of the
fact, if there is no chance for a reasonable doubt to exist, it is
imperatively your duty to yourselves, to your country, and to your
God to convict, even if the evidence be wholly presumptive."

I set this extremely dry document down exactly as it is recorded in the
files for two reasons: first, that it contains all of the charges
against Danvers, and to show how black the case stood against him when
I say that all Pitcairn said he would prove he proved to the last
letter.

After my own testimony was taken, the nature of which is already known,
I was granted the privilege of sitting beside Sandy and his boy,