iniquities of those times, to be visited on this? But here, above all,
was a castle vigorously besieged; every spot around was the scene of a
sally, a conflict, a flight, a pursuit. Where the slaughtered fell, there
were they buried. What place is not burial earth in war? How many bones
must still remain in the vicinity of that siege, for futurity to
discover! Can you, then, with so many probable circumstances, choose the
one least probable? Can you impute to the living what Zeal in its fury
may have done; what Nature may have taken off and Piety interred, or what
War alone may have destroyed, alone deposited?

"And now, glance over the circumstantial evidence, how weak, how frail! I
almost scorn to allude to it. I will not condescend to dwell upon it. The
witness of one man, arraigned himself! Is there no chance that to save
his own life he might conspire against mine?--no chance that he might
have committed this murder, if murder hath indeed been done? that
conscience betrayed to his first exclamation? that craft suggested his
throwing that guilt on me, to the knowledge of which he had unwittingly
confessed? He declares that he saw me strike Clarke, that he saw him
fall; yet he utters no cry, no reproof. He calls for no aid; he returns
quietly home; he declares that he knows not what became of the body, yet
he tells where the body is laid. He declares that he went straight home,
and alone; yet the woman with whom I lodged declares that Houseman and I
returned to my house in company together;--what evidence is this? and
from whom does it come?--ask yourselves. As for the rest of the evidence,
what does it amount to? The watchman sees Houseman leave my house at
night. What more probable, but what less connected with the murder, real
or supposed, of Clarke? Some pieces of clothing are found buried in my
garden. But how can it be shewn that they belonged to Clarke? Who can
swear to, who can prove any thing so vague? And if found there, even if
belonging to Clarke, what proof that they were there deposited by me? How