testimony on this point.  Mr. Webb tells you that Samuel told him, on the 8th of June, “that he did not know what time his brother Frank came home, and that he was not at home when he went to bed.”  You will consider this testimony of Mr. Webb as indorsed upon this affidavit; and with this indorsement upon it, you will give it its due weight.  This statement was made to him after Frank was arrested.

I come to the testimony of the father.  I find myself incapable of speaking of him or his testimony with severity.  Unfortunate old man!  Another Lear, in the conduct of his children; another Lear, I apprehend, in the effect of his distress upon his mind and understanding.  He is brought here to testify, under circumstances that disarm severity, and call loudly for sympathy.  Though it is impossible not to see that his story cannot be credited, yet I am unable to speak of him otherwise than in sorrow and grief.  Unhappy father! he strives to remember, perhaps persuades himself that he does remember, that on the evening of the murder he was himself at home at ten o’clock.  He thinks, or seems to think, that his son came in at about five minutes past ten.  He fancies that he remembers his conversation; he thinks he spoke of bolting the door; he thinks he asked the time of night; he seems to remember his then going to his bed.  Alas! these are but the swimming fancies of an agitated and distressed mind.  Alas! they are but the dreams of hope, its uncertain lights, flickering on the thick darkness of parental distress.  Alas! the miserable father knows nothing, in reality, of all these things.

Mr. Shepard says that the first conversation he had with Mr. Knapp was soon after the murder, and before the arrest of his sons.  Mr. Knapp says it was after the arrest of his sons.  His own fears led him to say to Mr. Shepard, that his “son Frank was at home that night; and so Phippen told him,” or “as Phippen told him.”  Mr. Shepard says that he was struck with the remark at the time; that it made an unfavorable impression on his mind; he does not tell you what that impression was, but when you connect it with the previous inquiry he had made, whether Frank had continued to associate with the Crowninshields, and recollect that the Crowninshields were then known to be suspected of this crime, can you doubt what this impression was? can you doubt as to the fears he then had?

This poor old man tells you, that he was greatly perplexed at the time; that he found himself in embarrassed circumstances; that on this very night he was engaged in making an assignment of his property to his friend, Mr. Shepard.  If ever charity should furnish a mantle for error, it should be here.  Imagination cannot picture a more deplorable, distressed condition.

The same general remarks may be applied to his conversation with Mr. Treadwell, as have been made upon that with Mr. Shepard.  He told him, that he believed Frank was at home about the usual time.  In his conversations with either of these persons, he did not pretend to know, of his own knowledge, the time that he came home.  He now tells you positively that he recollects the time, and that he so told Mr. Shepard.  He is directly contradicted by both these witnesses, as respectable men as Salem affords.