These circumstances are mentioned to account for the scanty testimony which Riley afterwards gave; it being supposed that he had withheld evidence to serve the interest of his master. And certainly it is a little difficult to believe that Patrick Riley, who was a soldier as well as the servant of Captain Douglas, did not know what the pistol-case contained, or for what purpose he carried it and the two potatoes to the battery. We continue the narrative in the words of Mr Warren, which we should be very unwise not to adopt, wherever it is in our power to do so. “Captain Douglas proceeded to make a target in the wall opposite, which faced the sea—by putting a potato into the centre of an open piece of newspaper, and then thrusting it into a crevice in the wall. This he did to make the mark at which he intended to aim more distinctly visible. He had selected this particular spot for his practice because it was retired and safe. It was entirely hid from the view of the sentry, or any of the men on guard at the barracks.... After firing about twenty or thirty shots, every one of them at the target in question—standing all the while with his back to the sea, and against the rampart, and at which stood the pistol-case and potatoes—he saw Mr Parker approaching. It was a few minutes before one o’clock when he got there. Having fired two shots, both at the same target at which Captain Douglas had been shooting, he went down by a somewhat precipitous descent to the beach, which lay about forty feet immediately below them, accompanied by his dog—intending to amuse himself for a few minutes by throwing stones into the sea, and sending his dog after them; and also desirous of ascertaining whether a hole, which had caught his eye in descending, was that of a rabbit or a rat.” Amusements were scarce at Alderney.