WITNESS--I recollect having occasion to call at the Excise Office upon Wednesday, the 5th of March last, about half-past eight in the evening, and as I thought it was probable that there might be still some person in the office, I went straight forward to the door without calling for the key, and finding the door on the latch, I opened it and went in. Just as I entered, a man, who appeared to be dressed in a black coat and cocked hat, stepped out. He seemed to be in a hurry, and I stepped aside to give way to him. He was a square-built man, and was rather taller than me. I took no suspicion, thinking it was some of the people belonging to the office, detained later than usual. I went upstairs to the solicitor’s office, and into the room in which I usually write. I remained there about ten minutes, came down again, and then went away. I saw no person either in the entry or the court as I came out. [Sidenote: Isobel Wilson] 15. ISOBEL WILSON, spouse of Adam Robertson, wright in Duddingston, called in and sworn. Examined by the SOLICITOR-GENERAL--Pray, madam, do you remember anything of two persons coming to your house in the month of March last? WITNESS--I did not remember, at first, anything of the matter, but having afterwards seen John Brown [a succeeding witness] in the Sheriff-Clerk’s Office, he mentioned some circumstances which passed upon the occasion, which brought to my recollection that there were two persons in my house at the time you mentioned, and I think that Brown was one of them. They called for a bottle of porter, which they drank and paid for, but I do not recollect anything else that passed upon the occasion. [Sidenote: John Kinnear] 16. JOHN KINNEAR, servant to the Earl of Abercorn at Duddingston, called in and sworn. WITNESS--I recollect that the coulter of a plough with which I had been at work and two iron wedges were stolen from a field some time last spring, but whether in February or March I cannot say, only I recollect that there was then snow upon the ground. I loosed from work between two and three o’clock on the day on which the articles were stolen, and went to Edinburgh, and on my way thither, about four o’clock, I observed two men in blackish clothes standing upon the ploughed land by the plough to which the coulter belonged, and there was a black dog at some distance from them.[3] When I came to work next morning I found the coulter of the plough and the wedges had been taken away. [Here the coulter and the wedges referred to in the indictment were shown to the witness.] These are the coulter and wedges that were stolen from my plough. Cross-examined by Mr. JOHN CLERK, for George Smith--How do you come to know that?