MR. CHESTERTON: Did Mr. Grewgious ever tell you how he came across Edwin Drood? WITNESS: What he told me was this: that on Christmas Eve, 1860, he received very late at night, a letter from Miss Rosa Bud, his ward, to whom he was very much attached, and, if I may be allowed to remark, to whose mother he was very devotedly attached also. This letter was written by Miss Bud immediately following her conversation with Mr. Edwin Drood, which is in the Official Record, I think, and it entreated Mr. Grewgious, in very strong terms, to be with her in Cloisterham on Christmas Day. The letter reached Mr. Grewgious very late in the evening, and owing to the defects of the railway system, some of which, I am glad to learn, have been altered since, it was impossible for Mr. Grewgious to get to Cloisterham except by posting down, which he accordingly did. MR. CHESTERTON: There was no train after eight o’clock? WITNESS: At that time no train after eight o’clock—from Victoria. MR. CHESTERTON: He posted down, and what do you understand he did when he arrived at Cloisterham? WITNESS: He told me that he drove into Cloisterham somewhere about 5.30. Passing the Postern Gate, he stopped his carriage, and asked it to wait a minute. MR. CHESTERTON: Why? WITNESS: He wanted to walk through the gate into the Churchyard, a few yards—some 40 or 50 yards, I think—in order to put some flowers on the grave of Miss Rosa Bud’s mother, as I think it is stated in the official documents, he was very much attached to Miss Bud’s mother. MR. CHESTERTON: When he got there, whom did he find? WITNESS: He found Edwin Drood lying prone. MR. CHESTERTON: And what did he do? WITNESS: I believe the first thing he did was to pick him up. He then shook him together, begged him to speak to him, and questioned him, and Edwin Drood entreated him to take him out of Cloisterham without any delay. MR. CHESTERTON: I understand, Mr. Bazzard, from your narrative, that Mr. Drood could give practically no coherent account of what had happened? WITNESS: None whatever, beyond the fact that somebody had tried to strangle him, as he thought. MR. CHESTERTON: When you saw him, what sort of memory had he of that night? WITNESS: Vague and unsatisfactory. MR. CHESTERTON: He could not have sworn that either Neville Landless or Jasper had attacked him? WITNESS: He could not swear anything, except that he had been attacked. MR. CHESTERTON: His sympathies leaned, of course, to Jasper rather than to Landless? WITNESS: He was very loath indeed to think that his uncle, whom he had cherished with very great respect and esteem, had been concerned in the attempt to murder him. MR. CHESTERTON: If he could have given evidence then, I take it he would have given evidence rather in favour of Jasper than of Landless? WITNESS: That depends on the Jury. JUDGE: I was going to remark that the question goes a little outside anything the witness is called upon to answer. WITNESS: He was more inclined to——