Page 328 - A Jacobite Exile

and Jervoise, officers in the service of the king of Sweden.

"What have you to say, Captain Carstairs?"

"I have, sir, only to testify that this man, who stands beside me, is Robert
Nicholson, who was in my father's employment for two years, and was, I
believe, the principal witness against him. Captain Jervoise can also testify

to his identity. I now produce the confession, voluntarily made by this man,
and signed in the presence of witnesses."

He handed in the confession, which was read aloud by a clerk standing at
the lower end of the table. A murmur of indignation arose from the council,

as he concluded.

"You have acted the part of a base villain," Lord Normanby said to
Nicholson. "Hanging would be too good for such a caitiff. What induced
you to make this confession?"

"I have long repented my conduct," the man said. "I was forced into acting

as I did, by John Dormay, who might have had me hung for highway
robbery. I would long ago have told the truth, had I known where to find
the gentlemen I have injured; and, meeting them by chance the other day, I

resolved upon making a clean breast of it, and to take what punishment
your lordships may think proper; hoping, however, for your clemency, on

account of the fact that I was driven to act in the way I did."

One of the judges, who had the former depositions before him, asked him

several questions as to the manner in which he had put the papers into Sir
Marmaduke's cabinet.

He replied that he found the key in a vase on the mantel, and after trying
several locks with it, found that it fitted the cabinet.

"His statement agrees, my lords," the judge said, "with that made by Sir

Marmaduke Carstairs in his examinations. He then said that he could not
account for the papers being in his cabinet, for it was never unlocked, and