“Ay! but we have not heard all, or the most important part of the testimony.  The State’s Attorney has not fired his great gun yet,” said a fourth, as the crowd elbowed, pushed, and struggled out of the court-room.

Those from distant parts of the county remained in the village all night—­those nearer returned home to come back in the morning.

The second day of the trial, the village was more crowded than before.  At ten o’clock the court opened, the prisoner was shortly afterward brought in, and the prosecution renewed its examination of witnesses.  The next witness that took the stand was a most important one.  John Miles, captain of the schooner Plover.  He deposed that in the month of April, 182-, he was mate in the schooner Blanch, of which his father was the captain.  That in said month the prisoner at the bar had hired his father’s vessel to carry off a lady whom the prisoner declared to be his own wife; that they were to take her to the Bermudas.  That to effect their object, his father and himself had landed near Pine Bluff; the night was dark, yet he soon discerned the lady walking alone upon the beach.  They were bound to wait for the arrival of the prisoner, and a signal from him before approaching the lady.  They waited some time, watching from their cover the lady as she paced impatiently up and down the sands.  At length they saw the prisoner approaching.  He was closely wrapped up in his cloak, and his hat was pulled over his eyes, but they recognized him well by his air and gait.  They drew nearer still, keeping in the shadow, waiting for the signal.  The lady and the prisoner met—­a few words passed between them—­of which he, the deponent, only heard “Thurston?” “Yes, Thurston!” and then the prisoner raised his arm and struck, and the lady fell.  His father was a cautious man, and when he saw the prisoner rush up the cliff and disappear, when he saw that the lady was dead, and that the storm was beginning to rage violently and the tide was coming in, and fearing, besides, that he should get into trouble, he hurried into the boat and put off and boarded the schooner, and as soon as possible set sail for Bermuda.  They had kept away from this coast for years, that is to say, as long as the father lived.

John Miles was cross-examined by Mr. Romford, but without effect.

This testimony bore fatally upon the prisoner’s cause—­the silence of consternation reigned through the crowd.

Thurston Willcoxen, when he heard this astounding evidence, first thought that the witness was perjured, but when he looked closely upon his open, honest face, and fearless eye and free bearing, he saw that no consciousness of falsehood was there and he could but grant that the witness, naturally deceived by “foregone conclusions,” had inevitably mistaken the real murderer for himself.