It did not do to make any false moves before Davy Thoirs, and this is just what the Fiscal did when he admitted that John Reynolds, one of the defendants, was ashore at the time of the attack. Swift, hard, the defense hit this point. Under that practice one defendant in a criminal action could not be a witness for a co-defendant until “so purged from being _socius criminis_ (a fellow criminal)” as to be “put in case to be a witness.” If Reynolds could be cleared of the crime he could testify for his fellows. For a situation of that sort the law provided that one defendant wishing to use another as his witness was to “raise an exculpation” on behalf of that witness; that is, he would offer to prove such and such facts concerning the desired witness, upon which a trial was to be had, when, if the party were cleared or “exculpated” he could then take the stand and return the compliment to his erstwhile co-defendants. On behalf of the accused, the defense now offered to exculpate and thus qualify John Reynolds, on the ground that, as admitted by the Fiscal, he was on shore at the time of the crime charged and therefore not _particeps criminis_. The Fiscal roared. “You can’t do this,” he yelled, and the noisier he grew the vaguer his argument became; you have to positively offer to prove Reynolds was somewhere else on some exact day or not on his ship for four months together. My indictment may be vague, was what he meant, but your alibi must be as specific as a bookkeeper’s accounts. Why, that was why he had drawn his indictment so loosely,--just to head off alibis. The judges would consider the matter. Why continue? It was all on that stripe. On the morning of the thirteenth, the judges announced the conclusion of their deliberations. “The judges and assessors,” came the stiletto tones from the seat of Justice, “having advised both the indictments pursued by Mr. Alexander Higgins, Procurator-Fiscal of the High Court of Admiralty, against captain Thomas Green” and the others, find, that “Reynolds being libelled against as _socius criminis_, a fellow criminal, and there being no specialty or particular ground of exculpation proponed, why he should be previously tried repel” the offer of the defense to exculpate him and “repel the objection against the generality of the indictments, in regard to the nature of the crimes and find the crimes of piracy, or robbery or murder, as libelled, being proven by clear and plain evidence, relevant to infer the pains of death ... and remit the whole to the knowledge of the assize (jury).” Captain Green’s snuffbox tinkled along the floor. Sir Patrick Home of the prosecution glanced up gratefully at Sir John Home on the bench; the audience breathed a collective Ah! The judges rose and passed out; their gowns were more than dappled,--they now dripped with scarlet.