When at length the appointed morning arrived, I arose early, but with a saddened heart.  I looked upon my wife and helpless family, reflecting that possibly this might be the last time we should all assemble around the breakfast table in our hitherto quiet home, and I could scarcely refrain from weeping.  I, however, took my leave, and a lad with me, to bring back a message of the result, if the court found sufficient cause to detain me for trial.  But when I found that I must be tried, I felt too unhappy to make others so, and kept out of the lad’s way.  He returned without a message; and I took my seat in the prisoner’s box.  I had just taken a letter out of the post office, from Rochester, containing recommendations and attestations from the first men in the city, of my good character, which relieved my feelings somewhat:  nevertheless, my heart was heavy, and especially when, soon after I took my seat, a trap-door was opened and a murderer was brought up and seated by my side!

Chief Justice Robinson, made his appearance in great pomp—­dressed in the English court style-then the crier, in a shrill voice, announced the opening of the court, and finished by exclaiming, “God save the King!” His lordship then called the attention of the jury to the law of the land; particularly to that portion relating to their present duty; and the grand jury presented me to the court, for feloniously taking a certain promissory note from the house of Israel Lewis.  The King’s Attorney had but one witness, and that was Lewis.  He was called to the stand, permitted to relate his story, and retire without any cross-examination on the part of my Attorney; but that gentleman called up three respectable white men, all of whom swore that they would not believe Israel Lewis under oath!  Then submitted the case to the jury without remark or comment, and the jury, without leaving their seats, brought in a verdict of “NOT GUILTY.”  Thus ended my first and last trial for theft!  Oh, how my very soul revolted at the thought of being thus accused; but now that I stood justified before God and my fellow-men, I felt relieved and grateful; nor could I feel anything but pity for Lewis, who, like Hainan, had been so industriously engaged in erecting “a gallows fifty cubits high” for me, but found himself dangling upon it He raved like a madman, clutched the arm of the Judge and demanded a new trial, but he shook him off with contempt and indignation, as though he had been a viper.  In his wild fury and reckless determination to destroy my character, he had cast a foul stain upon his own, never to be effaced.  I had felt bound to preserve my reputation when unjustly assailed, but it had been to me a painful necessity to throw a fellow-being into the unenviable and disgraceful attitude in which Lewis now stood; and yet, he would not, and did not yield the point, notwithstanding his ignominious defeat.

He very soon began to gather his forces for another attack upon me, and followed the same direction for his accusation,—­the land purchase.