inquiry is, Is there any reason to think that there was a special or
particular combination, for the single purpose of robbing the prosecutor?
Now it is material to observe, that not only is there no evidence of any
such combination, but also, that circumstances existed which render it
next to impossible that the defendants could have been parties to such a
combination, or even that they could have any knowledge of the existence
of any such man as Goodridge, or that any person, with money, was expected
to come from the eastward, and to be near Essex Bridge, at or about nine
o'clock, the evening when the robbery is said to have been committed.

One of the defendants had been for some weeks in Newburyport, the other
passed the bridge from New Hampshire at twelve o'clock on the 19th of
December, 1816. At this time, Goodridge had not yet arrived at Exeter,
twelve or fourteen miles from the bridge. How, then, could either of the
defendants know that he was coming? Besides, he says that nobody, as far
as he is aware, knew on the road that he had money, and nothing happened
till he reached Exeter, according to his account, from which it might be
conjectured that such was the case. Here, as he relates it, it became
known that he had pistols; and he must wish you to infer that the plan to
rob him was laid here, at Exeter, by some of the persons who inferred that
he had money from his being armed. Who were these persons? Certainly not
the defendants, or either of them. Certainly not Taber. Certainly not
Jackman. Were they persons of suspicious characters? Was he in a house of
a suspicious character? On this point he gives us no information. He has
either not taken the pains to inquire, or he chooses not to communicate
the result of his inquiries. Yet nothing could be more important, since he
seems compelled to lay the scene of the plot against him at Exeter, than
to know who the persons were that he saw, or who saw him, at that place.
On the face of the facts now proved, nothing could be more improbable than
that the plan of robbery was concerted at Exeter. If so, why should those