appears, no one else ever heard of; and the story itself is so perfectly
absurd, it is difficult to resist the belief that it was the product of
his imagination at the moment. He seems to have been a little too
confident that an attempt would be made to rob him. The manner in which he
carried his money, as he says, indicated a strong expectation of this
sort. His gold he wrapped in a cambric cloth, put it into a shot bag, and
then into a portmanteau. One parcel of bills, of a hundred dollars in
amount, he put into his pocket-book; another, of somewhat more than a
thousand dollars, he carried next his person, underneath all his clothes.
Having disposed of his money in this way, and armed himself with two good
pistols, he set out from Bangor. The jury will judge whether this
extraordinary care of his money, and this formal arming of himself to
defend it, are not circumstances of a very suspicious character.

He stated that he did not travel in the night; that he would not so much
expose himself to robbers. He said that, when he came near Alfred, he did
not go into the village, but stopped a few miles short, because night was
coming on, and he would not trust himself and his money out at night. He
represents himself to have observed this rule constantly and invariably
until he got to Exeter. Yet, when the time came for the robbery, he was
found out at night. He left Exeter about sunset, intending to go to
Newburyport, fifteen miles distant, that evening. When he is asked how
this should happen, he says he had no fear of robbers after he left the
District of Maine. He thought himself quite safe when he arrived at
Exeter. Yet he told the jury, that at Exeter he thought it necessary to
load his pistol afresh. He asked for a private room at the inn. He told
the persons in attendance that he wished such a room for the purpose of
changing his clothes. He charged them not to suffer him to be interrupted.
But he now testifies that his object was not to change his dress, but to
put new loading into his pistols. What sort of a story is this?