"Allow me to ask you, Mr. Beauchamp," he said, "whether, while I was in your service, you ever detected me in any act of dishonesty." "To speak but candidly," replied Beauchamp, "I never did." "Did I not on more than one occasion," proceeded Harding, "when your tradesmen endeavoured to cheat or overcharge you, point out to you the fact." "You certainly did," replied his former master. "So far, then, your evidence is favourable to me," continued the culprit. "Now, pray tell me, Mr. Beauchamp, what was your own errand at the house of Mr. Tims on the night in question--or rather, what became of you between the first and second calls which you made at his dwelling during that evening?" and he fixed his eye upon the witness's countenance with a degree of sneering triumph at the pain he imagined the question would cause him. But Beauchamp answered with the utmost coolness. "I do not know," he said, "that any law would oblige me to reply to a demand which does not seem to bear upon the case; but, nevertheless, I have not the slightest objection to do so. I had, on the first visit I paid to the unhappy man who was afterwards murdered, received from him the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds, which I had promised to advance on mortgage on the estate of my cousin. Sir Sidney Delaware. From the house of Mr. Tims I went straight to Emberton Park; and, having discovered that Captain Delaware was absent from home, I took the liberty, as a relation and intimate friend, of entering his room, and leaving the money enveloped in a packet upon his dressing-table, proposing to give him intimation of the fact next morning." "Was not that rather a hazardous action, sir?" demanded Harding with cool insolence--"especially when there were so many thieves abroad?" "Not more so, it would seem," replied Beauchamp, "than to carry it in my pocket from Ryebury to Emberton when you were in my neighbourhood; but luckily it happened that you neither knew the one fact or the other." Harding was silent for a moment, finding that sarcasms were edged tools, which he had better not employ against Beauchamp, who had full strength to turn them back upon himself, with that sort of cold calmness which made them a thousand times more stinging. The pause was so long, that Beauchamp at length asked, "Have you any other question to put to me?" "Yes--several!" replied the prisoner. "Several--Why did you not give the money into the hands of Sir Sidney Delaware himself, when you found that his son was absent?" "Because it was not my pleasure to do so," replied Beauchamp. "I must submit to the court, whether these questions are relevant." The judge at once supported the witness's objection; and the prisoner being told that he must absolutely confine himself to the matter before the court, proceeded, "Pray, Mr. Beauchamp, was the moon shining at the time of your return to Ryebury?" "It was shining brightly," replied Beauchamp.