five o'clock
Tall , well-made , manly , and soldierly he stood , with a quiet set face , while Mr. Cowper proceeded to open the prosecution , with a certain compliment to the prisoner and regret at having to push the case against one who had so generously come forward on behalf of a kinsman ; but he must unwillingly state the circumstances that made it doubtful , nay , more than doubtful , whether the prisoner 's plea of mere misadventure could stand . The dislike to the unfortunate deceased existing among the young Tory country gentlemen of the county was , he should prove , intensified in the prisoner on account of not inexcusable jealousies , as well as of the youthful squabbles which sometimes lead to fatal results . On the evening of the 30th of June 1688 there had been angry words between the prisoner and the deceased on Portsdown Hill , respecting the prisoner 's late lady . At four or five o'clock on the ensuing morning , the 1st of July , the one fell by the sword of the other in the then unfrequented court of Portchester Castle . It was alleged that the stroke was fatal only through the violence of youthful impetuosity ; but was it consistent with that supposition that the young gentleman 's time was unaccounted for afterwards , and that the body should have been disposed of in a manner that clearly proved the assistance of an accomplice , and with so much skill that no suspicion had arisen for seven years and a half , whilst the actual slayer was serving , not his own country , but a foreign prince , and had only returned at a most suspicious crisis ? The counsel then proceeded to construct a plausible theory . He reminded the jury that at that very time , the summer of 1688 , messages and invitations were being despatched to his present Gracious Majesty to redress the wrongs of the Protestant Church , and protect the liberties of the English people .