“Moreover, what gentleman is ignorant that Knaresborough had a castle; which, though now a ruin, was once considerable, both for its strength and garrison? All know it was vigorously besieged by the arms of parliament; at which siege, in sallies, conflicts, flights, pursuits, many fell in the places round it, and where they fell, were buried; for every place, my lord, is burial earth in war; and many, questionless, of these, rest yet unknown, whose bones futurity shall yet discover. “I hope, with all imaginable submission, that what has been said will not be thought impertinent to this indictment; and that it will be far from the wisdom, the learning, and the integrity of this place, to impute to the living, what zeal in its fury may have done; what nature may have done; what nature may have taken off, and piety interred; or what war alone may have destroyed, alone deposited. “As to the circumstances that have been raked together, I have nothing to observe, but that all circumstances whatever, are precarious, and have too frequently been found lamentably fallible; even the strongest have failed. They may rise to the utmost degree of probability, yet they are but probability still. Why need I name to your lordship the two Harrisons, recorded by Dr. Howel, who both suffered upon circumstances, because of the sudden disappearance of their lodger, who was in credit, had contracted debts, borrowed money, and went off unseen, and returned a great many years after their execution? Why name the intricate affair of Jacques de Moulin, under king Charles II., related by a gentleman who was counsel for the crown? and why the unhappy Coleman, who suffered innocent, though convicted upon positive evidence, and whose children perished for want, because the world uncharitably believed the father guilty? Why mention the perjury of Smith, incautiously admitted king’s evidence, who, to screen himself, equally accused Faircloth and Loveday of the murder of Dunn; the first of whom, in 1749, was executed at Winchester; and Loveday was about to suffer at Reading, had not Smith been proved to be perjured, to the satisfaction of the court, by the surgeon of the Gosport hospital? “Now, my lord, having endeavored to show that the whole of this process is altogether repugnant to every part of my life; that it is inconsistent with my condition of health about that time; that no rational inference can be drawn that a person is dead who suddenly disappears; that hermitages were the constant repositories of the bones of the recluse; that the revolutions in religion, or the fortunes of war, have mangled or buried the dead; the conclusion remains, perhaps no less reasonably than impatiently wished for. I, at last, after a year’s confinement, equal to either fortune, put myself upon the candor, the justice, and the humanity of your lordship, and upon yours, my countrymen, gentlemen of the jury.”