-
"He was inside the stockade on the Sunday morning: saw the prisoner there
armed with a pike; he was in the act of running away; saw him twice in the
stockade; was sure the prisoner is the man."
Cross examined by Mr. Ireland: -
"Never saw the man before this; he was running in company with two other
men; it was very early in the morning; it was some time after the stockade
was taken that he was arrested; the firing then had not wholly ceased."
Private DON-SYN-GORE, drilled by sergeant HAG.
Trooper CON(S)CRIT-BAD-DOG, mobbed by Bob-tulip.
The pair of you are far below the ebb of our Neopolitan Lazzaroni!
Why did you not consult with spy Goodenough?
This having closed the case for the Crown, the Court adjourned at
half-past two.
Chapter LXXXVII.
Viri Probi, Spes Mea In Vobis; Nam Fides Nostra In Deo Optimo Maximo.
To be serious. I am a Catholic, born of an old Roman family, whose honour
never was questioned; I hereby assert before God and man, that previous to
my being under arrest at the Camp, I never had seen the face of 1, Gore,
2, Synnot, 3, Donnelly, 4, Concritt, 5, Dogherty, 6, Badcock, 7, Hagartey,
and 8, Tully.
I CHALLENGE CONTRADICTION from any 'bona fide' digger, who was present
at the stockade during the massacre on the morning of December 3rd, 1854.
As a man of education and therefore a member of the Republic of Letters,
I hereby express the hope that the Press throughout the whole of Australia
will open their columns to any bona fide contradiction to my solemn
assertions above. I cannot possibly say anything more on such a sad
subject.
Chapter LXXXVIII.
Sunt Leges: Vis Ultima Lex: Tunc Aut Libertas Aut Servitudo;
Mors Enim Benedicta.
On the reassembling of the Court, at three o'clock, Mr. Ireland rose to
address the Jury for the defence.
The learned Counsel spent a heap of dry yabber-yabber on the law of
high-treason, to show its absurdity and how its interpretation had ever
proved a vexation even to lawyers, then he tackled with some more tangible
solids. The British law, the boast of 'urbis et orbis terrarum',
delivered a traitor to be practised upon by a sanguinary
Jack Ketch: - I., to hang the beggar until he be dead, dead, dead;
II., then to chop the carcase in quarters; III., never mind the stench,
each piece of the treacherous flesh must remain stuck up at the top of
each gate of the town, there to dry in spite of occasional pecking from
crows and vultures. The whole performance to impress the young generation
with the fear of God and teach them to honour the King.
I soon reconciled myself to my lot, and remembering my younger days at
school, I argued thus:
