The words that he used, in any other man's mouth, would, probably, have produced little or no effect; but there was something in the simplicity which, mingled with Longly's shrewdness, and in the contrast between the bold ingenuity with which he frustrated the efforts of the counsel to extract his secret, and the straightforward candour with which he afterward told it, all at once, that gave point to every word. In answer to some further questions from the court, in reference to the ultimate fate of Hargrave, he said:-- "Why, my lord, I thought the scoundrel was as dead as a stock-fish; but I have heard since that he got quite well, and was drowned when the cutter got ashore on the Hog's-back. But you see, as soon as I heard that, I went and asked old Jenkins, with whom I had left him; and I made him tell me the truth; and then I found that it was only a faint that he was in. He went on fainting that way all day; but he got better afore the next morning, and then he made old Jenkins swear he would not tell but that he was dead. He had some deviltry or another in hand, depend upon it, by pretending to be dead when he was living; but, howsoever, he's as dead as a mackerel now, that's clear." "This matter must be inquired into further," said the judge; "but, in the meantime, I hope the witness will remember the dangerous situation he not only brought himself, but others, by giving way to a spirit of revenge:" and he proceeded to read Longly a lecture, to which the other listened with great attention, being far more edified by the full wig and furred gown, than by those absurd conceits wherewith our gentlemen of the bar are compelled to disfigure themselves. When Longly had been suffered to go down, the good fisherman, John Hailes, was called, and confirmed, in every particular, the evidence of the preceding witness. His account of the duel between Longly and Lieutenant Hargrave, delivered in homely language, and stripped of every shade of the imaginative, made a smile run through the court; but while he went on the jury were consulting together, without attending; and as soon as he had done, the foreman addressed the judge, saying:-- "I do not think, my lord, that the case need go on. We are all agreed in regard to our verdict, and it is only putting Sir Charles Tyrrell to unnecessary pain to proceed further." A momentary smile of satisfaction passed over Sir Charles Tyrrell's countenance as he heard the words spoken which placed his fate beyond doubt; but he turned at once to the judge, saying:--