“Well, Jenny, speak then,” said Sir Henry Clavering. “You say you have now come to tell us of the murder; but this is more than a year after it took place. You must have had plenty of opportunities before.” “No, your worship,” said the old woman; “no, as God knows, never! That Scammel has had us awlis wi’ him. We were never quite out of his sight. He trapesed us off after the murder, away, and away; travelling o’ nights, lying in woods and mosses by day. Oh! how he did hallecx us about the country; till we came to that Charnwood Forest where he was taken. There he watched us as a cat watches a mouse: and he said, savourly, if we ever made the least attempt to escape, he would just knock our foolish brains out; and he would, too. If ever the devil was in a man, he was in Scammel.” “And how did you live all that time?” “Live? Oh, we did not live so badly. Scammel had plenty o’ money: and wherever there were hares and pheasants, would not Scammel have his share? I rather guess he would. But our meat did us no good, nor our bread neither, for we got good bread out of the villages.” “Who fetched it?” “We did, yer honour.” “And could not you have escaped or informed then?” “Ay, faith, just as th’ mouse can escape, when the cat lets it go a little, and lets it run a little, and then gives it a cuff wi’ its paw, as much as to say, ‘I’m here yet,’ Scammel awlis watched us. He went with us to the village, and lurked behind some hedge, and if I did not go into the baker’s, for he awlis sent me, and come direct out again with the bread, he would give a whistle as made my heart jump; for it meant, ‘Old woman, another minute, and I’ll murder you where you are.’ Well, as God would have it, he was taken, and we’ve followed, as fast as we could, to give information. This morning we got here, and heard as how the villain had drownded his sen, and so here we are.” “Well,” said Mr. Degge, “I wish you had been here a year or more ago. You would then have merited well of the country, and would have got three hundred pounds reward. Now Hopcraft has confessed; and we must commit you both as accessories after the fact, as you have not come forward, and given information of the murder.”