It had got comfortable clothes on,
but its body was cold, and I thought it must be dead. I made haste back
with it out of the wood, and took it home to my wife. She said it was
dead, and I'd better take it to the parish and tell the constable. And I
said, 'I'll lay my life it's that young woman's child as I met going to
the coppice.' But she seemed to be gone clean out of sight. And I took
the child on to Hetton parish and told the constable, and we went on to
Justice Hardy. And then we went looking after the young woman till dark
at night, and we went and gave information at Stoniton, as they might
stop her. And the next morning, another constable came to me, to go with
him to the spot where I found the child. And when we got there, there
was the prisoner a-sitting against the bush where I found the child; and
she cried out when she saw us, but she never offered to move. She'd got
a big piece of bread on her lap."
Adam had given a faint groan of despair while this witness was speaking.
He had hidden his face on his arm, which rested on the boarding in front
of him. It was the supreme moment of his suffering: Hetty was guilty;
and he was silently calling to God for help. He heard no more of the
evidence, and was unconscious when the case for the prosecution had
closed--unconscious that Mr.
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