"I am sorry, sir, I do," said Archie.

"I am sorry, too," said his lordship. "And now, if you please, we shall
approach this business with a little more parteecularity. I hear that
at the hanging of Duncan Jopp - and, man! ye had a fine client there -
in the middle of all the riff-raff of the ceety, ye thought fit to cry
out, `This is a damned murder, and my gorge rises at the man that
haangit him.' "

"No, sir, these were not my words," cried Archie.

"What were yer words, then?" asked the Judge.

"I believe I said, `I denounce it as a murder!'" said the son. "I beg
your pardon - a God-defying murder. I have no wish to conceal the
truth," he added, and looked his father for a moment in the face.

"God, it would only need that of it next!" cried Hermiston. "There was
nothing about your gorge rising, then?"

"That was afterwards, my lord, as I was leaving the Speculative. I said
I had been to see the miserable creature hanged, and my gorge rose at
it."

"Did ye, though?" said Hermiston. "And I suppose ye knew who haangit
him?"

"I was present at the trial, I ought to tell you that, I ought to
explain. I ask your pardon beforehand for any expression that may seem
undutiful. The position in which I stand is wretched," said the unhappy