that the moon was shining brightly, and was nearly full; and that its position in the sky was just about that of the sun at ten o’clock in the morning, and by it he saw Armstrong give the mortal blow.”  This was fatal, unless the effect could be broken by contradiction or impeachment.  Lincoln quietly looked up an almanac, and found that at the time this witness declared the moon to have been shining with full light there was no moon at all.  Lincoln made the closing argument.  “At first,” says Mr. Walker, one of the counsel associated with him, “he spoke very slowly and carefully, reviewing the testimony and pointing out its contradictions, discrepancies and impossibilities.  When he had thus prepared the way, he called for an almanac, and showed that at the hour at which the principal witness swore he had seen, by the light of the full moon, the mortal blow given, there was no moon.  The last fifteen minutes of his speech were as eloquent as I ever heard; and such were the power and earnestness with which he spoke to that jury, that all sat as if entranced, and, when he was through, found relief in a gush of tears.”  Said one of the prosecutors:  “He took the jury by storm.  There were tears in Mr. Lincoln’s eyes while he spoke, but they were genuine.  His sympathies were fully enlisted in favor of the young man, and his terrible sincerity could not help but arouse the same passion in the jury.  I have said a hundred times that it was Lincoln’s speech that saved that man from the gallows.”  “Armstrong was not cleared by any want of testimony against him, but by the irresistible appeal of Mr. Lincoln in his favor,” says Mr. Shaw, one of the associates in the prosecution.  His mother, who sat near during Lincoln’s appeal, says:  “He told the stories about our first acquaintance, and what I did for him and how I did it.  Lincoln said to me, ’Hannah, your son will be cleared before sundown.’  He and the other lawyers addressed the jury, and closed the case.  I went down to Thompson’s pasture.  Stator came to me and told me that my son was cleared and a free man.  I went up to the court-house; the jury shook hands with me, so did the court, so did Lincoln.  We were all affected, and tears were in Lincoln’s eyes.  He then remarked to me, ’Hannah, what did I tell you?  I pray to God that William may be a good boy hereafter; that this lesson may prove in the end a good lesson to him and to all.’  After the trial was over, Lincoln came down to where I was in Beardstown.  I asked him what he charged me; told him I was poor.  He said, ’Why, Hannah, I shan’t charge you a cent—­never.  Anything I can do for you I will do willingly and without charges.’  He wrote to me about some land which some men were trying to get from me, and said, ’Hannah, they can’t get your land.  Let them try it in the Circuit Court, and then you appeal it.  Bring it to the Supreme Court, and Herndon and I will attend to it for nothing.’”