The witness paused again.  Ralph was listening with intense eagerness.  He was leaning over the rail before him to catch every syllable.  When the woman had regained some composure he said quietly,—­

“There is a bridge thereabouts that spans a river.  Which side of the bridge were you then?”

“The Carlisle side; that is to say, the north.”

The voice of counsel interrupted a further inquiry.

“Pray tell my lords and the jury what else you know, good woman.”

“We should have perished of cold where we sat, but looking up I saw that there was a barn in a field close by.  It was open to the front, but it seemed to be sheltered on three sides, and had some hay in it.  So I made my way to it through a gate, and carried the children.”

“What happened while you were there?—­quick, woman, let us get to the wicked fact itself.”

“We stayed there all day, and when the night came on I covered the little ones in the hay, and they cried themselves to sleep.”

The tears were standing in the woman’s eyes.  The eyes of others were wet.

“Yes, yes, but what occurred?” said counsel, to whom the weeping of outcast babes was obviously less than an occurrence.

“I could not sleep,” said the woman hoarsely; and lifting her voice to a defiant pitch, she said, “Would that the dear God had let me sleep that night of all nights of my life!”

“Come, good woman,” said counsel more soothingly, “what next?”

“I listened to the footsteps that went by on the road, and so the weary hours trailed on.  At last they had ceased to come and go.  It was then that I heard a horse’s canter far away to the north.”

The witness was speaking in a voice so low as to be scarcely audible to the people, who stood on tiptoe and held their breath to hear.

“My little boy cried in his sleep.  Then all was quiet again.”

Sim shuddered perceptibly.  He felt his flesh creep.

“The thought came to me that perhaps the man on the horse could give me something to do the boy good.  If he came from a distance, he would surely carry brandy.  So I labored out of the barn and trudged through the grass to the hedge.  Then I heard footsteps on the road.  They were coming towards me.”

“Was it dark?”

“Yes, but not very dark.  I could see the hedge across the way.  The man on foot and the man on the horse came together near where I stood.”

“How near—­twenty paces?”

“Less.  I was about to call, when I heard the man on foot speak to the other, who was riding past him.”

“You saw both men clearly?”

“No,” replied the woman firmly; “not clearly.  I saw the one on the road.  He was a little man, and he limped in his walk.”

In the stillness of the court Ralph could almost hear the woman breathe.

“They were quarrelling, the two men; you heard what they said?” said counsel, breaking silence.