The evidence called to support and to oppose this was very contradictory. It was sworn that, talking about the affray at a tavern next day, Giles said, “God damn him, God rot him, he had armour on”; but the witness admitted that he might have said, “God rot him, he had armour on, they say.”[776] The prisoner declared that he merely told it as a common piece of news that Arnold would have been killed had he not worn armour, and called a witness who affirmed that this was so, that Giles had called the attempt “a cruel assassination” of which he was sorry to hear, and had made use of no oaths at all.[777] Evidence was given for the crown that Giles had hurried through Usk on May 5, saying that he was afraid of being arrested for the assault on Arnold, and at a cutler’s shop where he went to have a sword mended said he had been fighting “with damned Arnold.”[778] This was contradicted by the Mayor of Monmouth, who proved that Giles had not hurried through Usk, but stayed there several hours; and by the cutler’s apprentice, who proved that when the prisoner was asked, “How came your sword broke? Have you been fighting with the devil?” so far from speaking the words alleged, he had answered, “No, for I never met with Arnold.”[779] A great deal of evidence was given concerning the prisoner’s movements on the night of April 15. He had passed the evening in company at various taverns, and had finally gone to sleep at the King’s Arms in St. Martin’s Lane; but as the witnesses arrived at the times o’clock to which they deposed by guess-work alone, their evidence was naturally contradictory; and it seems now quite impossible to know certainly whether Giles was, as the prosecution contended, seen last at ten o’clock and did not go to bed till one in the morning, or, as the witnesses for the defence stated, had been in company till the hour of eleven or twelve.[780] According to the evidence therefore, which Jeffreys summed up at length and with moderation,[781] it was open to the jury to find either for or against the prisoner, and after deliberating for half an hour they returned a verdict of guilty. Giles was sentenced to the fine of £500 and to be pilloried three times. On July 26 he was pilloried in Lincoln’s Inn Fields and was pelted so severely that his life was in danger; and when the remainder of the sentence was carried out in Holborn and the Strand, he had to be protected from the mob by a guard of constables and watchmen.[782]