Alison’s heart beat violently at the ordeal before her of speaking to the genuineness of the letter.  She had seen and suspected that to her brother-in-law, but she could not guess whether the flaws in that to Mr. Beauchamp would be equally palpable, and doubt and anxiety made her scarcely able to look at it steadily.  To her great relief, however, she was able to detect sufficient variations to justify her assertion that it was not authentic, and she was able to confirm her statement by comparison of the writing with that of a short, indignant denial of all knowledge of the transaction, which Harry Beauchamp had happily preserved, though little regarding it at the time.  She also showed the wrong direction, with the name of the place misspelt, according to her own copy of her sister-in-law’s address, at the request of Maddox himself, and pointed out that a letter to Ermine from her brother bore the right form.  The seal upon that to Mr. Beauchamp she likewise asserted to be the impression of one which her brother had lost more than a year before the date of the letter.

“Indeed, sir,” said the accused, fuming to Mr. Grey, “this is an exceedingly hard case.  Here am I, newly acquitted, after nearly six weeks’ imprisonment, on so frivolous a charge that it has been dismissed without my even having occasion to defend myself, or to call my own most respectable witnesses as to character, when another charge is brought forward against me in a name that there has been an unaccountable desire to impose on me.  Even if I were the person that this gentleman supposes, there is nothing proved.  He may very possibly have received a forged letter, but I perceive nothing to fix the charge upon the party he calls Maddox.  Let me call in my own witnesses, who had volunteered to come down from Bristol, and you will be convinced how completely mistaken the gentleman is.”

To this Mr. Grey replied that the case against him was not yet closed, and cautioning him to keep his own witnesses back; but he was urgent to be allowed to call them at once, as it was already late, and they were to go by the six o’clock train.  Mr. Grey consented, and a messenger was sent in search of them.  Mr. Beauchamp looked disturbed.  “What say you to this, Colin?” he asked, uneasily.  “That man’s audacity is enough to stagger one, and I only saw him three times at the utmost.”

“Never fear,” said Colin, “delay is all in our favour.”  At the same time Colin left them, and with him went some hope and confidence, leaving all to feel awkward and distressed during the delay that ensued, the accused expatiating all the time on the unreasonableness of bringing up an offence committed so many years ago, in the absence of the only witness who could prove the whole story, insisting, moreover, on his entire ignorance of the names of either Maddox or Williams.