cook of the house, the barmaid, the landlady,
and the landlady's husband. The latter, when
he saw we were getting angry, tried to make
friends between us, but in vain. We were each
annoyed at what the other had said, as well
as at our own folly, and neither would be the
first to say he was sorry for what had passed.

About six o'clock I took up my hat and
went to see some friends in the town. When
I got back it was past eleven o'clock, and
Strange, the housemaid told me, had been in
bed and asleep more than an hour. I paid my
share of the bill, for I intended starting early,
went up-stairs, found Strange fast asleep, and
went to bed myself. Next morning I was
called at five, packed my bag, swallowed a cup
of coffee, and in half an hour was on my way
to London. On leaving the inn I told the
porter that my companion was asleep, and
that, as he was only going by the ten o'clock
coach to Brighton, they need not call him yet.
I should not forget to tell you that while I was
dressing in the morning Strange awoke, and
that we shook hands over our dispute of the
previous day. We moreover agreed to change
our plans, and Strange was to meet me in
London on the next day. As I was closing my
carpet-bag he asked me to lend him one of my
razors: a thing which I had the greatest ob-
jection to (for if I am particular about anything
I possess, it is about my razors), but having
only just made up my difference with him,
I could hardly refuse him so small a favour.

"The days I am writing of were before railways
had extended to Southampton. Leaving
the latter place at half-past five in the morning,
it was half-past six in the evening before I got
to town. I went to bed, got up next day, and,
while I was sitting at breakfast with my wife,
our servant told me that two gentlemen wished
to speak to me. I went down to see them, and,
before I could open my mouth to ask them
what they wanted, found myself with handcuffs
on, arrested for the murder of Edward Strange.

"It seems that, finding Strange did not come
down by half-past nine, the porter went up to
call him. He found the door locked, but no
key in it. After knocking some time on the
outside, the door was broken open, and poor
Strange was found, with his throat cut from ear
to ear, and a razor in his hand. The key of the
door was afterwards found in the coffee-room,
under the very bench on which I had sat to
drink my cup of coffee before starting.

"I was brought before the magistrate at
Bow-street the next morning, and was by him sent
down to Southampton to await the result of the
coroner's inquest upon my partner. The verdict
was wilful murder, and, after commitment by
the magistrate to the sessions, I was put on
trial for my life at Winchester.

"The trial lasted only a few hours. It was
fully proved that Strange and myself had quarrelled
and had high words the night before, and
that I had said I did not care how soon he
died, so that I could recover the money I had
lent him. A great deal was made of the fact
that by Strange's death I should be entitled to
the insurance upon his life to the amount of
two thousand pounds, by which I should be a
clear gainer of one thousand two hundred. It
was further shown that the razor found in poor
Strange's hand was mine, and three medical
men declared their conviction that, although
that instrument was undoubtedly used to kill
the dead man, it must have been placed in his
hands after death. Moreover, there were not
only evident marks of a struggle about the bed
and bedclothes, but Strange's throat was cut
from right to left, which no one could have done
unless he had been a left-handed man, which
Strange was not. Then, again, the fact of the
bedroom door being locked, and the key hid
close to where I had breakfasted, told fearfully
against me. It was clear that Strange could
not by any possibility have cut his own ihroat,
and then locked the door of his room on the
outside. It was attempted by my counsel, to
throw discredit upon this part of the evidence.
The learned gentleman tried very hard to elicit
something which might even lead the jury to
imagine that the door had been locked after
the murder, and that some person unknown had
unknowingly let the key drop in the coffee-room.
But it was of no avail whatever. It was
clearly proved that the key had been inside the
door when I went up to bed, and that it had
never been seen again until it was found in the
coffee-room. My defence tried hard to make
out that some person likely to commit the
murder might have been in the house on that
day, but all of no use. As the trial went on,
even I, who knew my innocence, could not
help allowing to myself that the evidence,
though purely circumstantial, was very strong
against me. The only points in my favour were,
that, on the day of the murder I was supposed
to have committed, I travelled up to London,
and had not the least appearance of a man who
had anything on his mind. Again, Strange was
known to have had on his person a gold watch,
and a purse containing a few sovereigns and
twenty five-pound notes, the numbers of which
latter were ascertained at the bank at Southampton,
where he had procured them in exchange
for a bank-post bill. The watch had
been taken, and was never traced; the sovereigns
had also disappeared; but the bank-notes
had been exchanged at the Bank of England
on the day after the murder, and before I,
as I fully proved, had any communication
whatever with any one in London. Of this last point
my counsel made the most, but it did not help
me much, if anything. The jury retired, and,
after deliberating about half an hour, returned
into court and declared, through their foreman,
that I was guilty of the wilful murder of
Edward Strange.

"Gentlemen, a man who has gone through
that ordeal——who has heard the jury pronounce
him guilty of capital crime, and heard the judge
pass sentence of death upon him——a man, I say,
gentlemen, who has gone through that ordeal,
and still lives to tell the tale, may (or am I