midnight
`` Affectionately your Friend , `` Nancy Stair . '' And after , Jamie Henderlin swore that it was he who ran across the grounds , on his way home from a wedding , and that he had heard the shots and mentioned them to his mother on his arrival at the Burnside , thus identifying the small figure I had seen running through the shaft of light , and wiping away the last black mark on the slate against Danvers . Mr. Magendie asked permission at this point to address the court , saying that the defense had been reserved by Mr. Carmichael 's wish , and that the manner of the duke 's taking off had been a known thing to both of them for more than a week , but that Mr. Carmichael had stood his trial in order that every charge against him might be cleared away . And after raising public expectation to its highest , and ridiculing the idea that a man of intelligence should murder another and leave a weapon heavily marked with his own name by the side of the dead ; or that because a man had uttered some threats of again challenging one whom he had already met upon the field of honor , he should be accused of being a midnight assassin , there was called the last witness for the defense : `` Lord Rothermel ! '' The entrance of this distinguished statesman , whose friendship for the great Pitt kept him constantly in the public eye , caused little less than a sensation . As he took the oath , I had a near view of him ; his dignified bearing , his age , and his notable integrity showing at every turn , the tones of his voice filling the court with a peculiar resonance while he deponed as follows : `` I come , '' he said , `` as a messenger from Mr. Pitt , who regrets that his Majesty 's affairs , connected with the troublous times in France , prevent his leaving London . I have his deposition , however , and the case has been fully set before me by him , so that I feel I am in a position to tell the whole truth of this disastrous affair and to set Mr. Carmichael before the world as a free man .