My brother
and I were first examined face to face. His declaration was a mere
romance: mine was not the truth; but as it was by the advice of
my reverend father, and that of my illustrious friend, both of
whom I knew to be sincere Christians and true believers, that I
gave it, I conceived myself completely justified on that score. I
said I had gone up into the mountain early on the morning to
pray, and had withdrawn myself, for entire privacy, into a little
sequestered dell--had laid aside my cap, and was in the act of
kneeling when I was rudely attacked by my brother, knocked
over, and nearly slain. They asked my brother if this was true. He
acknowledged that it was; that I was bare-headed and in the act of
kneeling when he ran foul of me without any intent of doing so.
But the judge took him to task on the improbability of this, and
put the profligate sore out of countenance. The rest of his tale told
still worse, insomuch that he was laughed at by all present, for the
judge remarked to him that, granting it was true that he had at
first run against me on an open mountain and overthrown me by
accident, how was it that, after I had extricated myself and fled,
that he had pursued, overtaken, and knocked me down a second
time? Would he pretend that all that was likewise by chance? The
culprit had nothing to say for himself on this head, and I shall not
forget my exultation and that of my reverend father when the
sentence of the judge was delivered.
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