"Nay. Ye see, Dame, Squire he walked straight on; but the pedlar he took both sides of the road at oust, as the saying is." _The Prisoner._ Forgive me, Thomas, but I don't know what you mean. _Hayes_ (compassionately). How should ye? You are never the worse for liquor, the likes of you. _The Prisoner_ (very keenly). Oh, he was in liquor, was he? _Hayes._ Come, Dame, you do brew good ale at Hernshaw Castle. Ye needn't go to deny that; for, Lord knows, 'tis no sin; and a poor fellow may be jolly; yet not, to say, drunk. _The Judge_ (sternly). Witness, attend, and answer directly. _The Prisoner._ Nay, my lord, 'tis a plain country body, and means no ill. Good Thomas, be so much my friend as to answer plainly. Was the man drunk or sober? _Hayes._ All I know is he went from one side of the road to t'other. _The Prisoner._ Thomas Hayes, as you hope to be saved eternally, was the pedlar drunk or sober? _Hayes._ Well, if I must tell on my neighbor or else be damned, then that there pedlar was as drunk as a lord. Here, notwithstanding the nature of the trial, the laughter was irrepressible, and Mrs. Gaunt sat quietly down (for she was allowed a seat), and said no more. To the surgeon, who had examined the body officially, she put this question, "Did you find any signs of violence?" _The Surgeon._ None whatever; but, then, there was nothing to go by, except the head and the bones. _The Prisoner._ Have you experience in this kind? I mean, have you inspected murdered bodies? _The Surgeon._ Yes. _The Prisoner._ How many? _The Surgeon._ Two before this. _The Prisoner._ Oh! pray, pray, do not say "before this:" I have great hopes no murder at all hath been committed here. Let us keep to plain cases. Please you describe the injuries in those two undoubted cases. _The Surgeon._ In Wellyn's the skull was fractured in two places. In Sherrett's the right arm was broken, and there were some contusions on the head; but the cause of death was a stab that penetrated the lungs. _The Prisoner._ Suppose Wellyn's murderers had thrown his body into the water, and the fishes had so mutilated it as they have this one, could you by your art have detected the signs of violence? _The Surgeon._ Certainly. The man's skull was fractured. Wellyn's I mean. _The Prisoner._ I put the same question with regard to Sherrett's. _The Surgeon._ I cannot answer it: here the lungs were devoured by the fishes: no signs of lesion can be detected in an organ that has ceased to exist. _The Prisoner._ This is too partial. Why select one injury out of several? What I ask is this: could you have detected violence in Sherrett's case, although the fishes had eaten the flesh of his body. _The Surgeon._ I answer that the minor injuries of Sherrett would have been equally perceptible; to wit, the bruises on the head, and the broken arm; but not the perforation of the lungs; and that it was killed the man.