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James Stark, collector of excise, Kirkcaldy, aged forty-nine years or thereby, married, solemnly sworn, purged of malice partial, counsel examined and interrogated, depones time and place libelled the deponent being then upon his collection as collector of excise.

The deponent then went east to Anstruther in search of the rest of the robbers, and having surrounded the house of James Wilson there, he found three men in a room there, viz., Andrew Wilson and George Robertson, panels, and one John Friar, and having shown them to the above Thomas Durkie, he declared that they were two of the persons who had robbed the collector; upon which the deponent having applied to Bailies Robert Brown and Philip Millar, both in Anstruther-Easter, he got the accused committed to prison; and further depones that as the panels were being carried prisoners to Edinburgh, and while they were halting at Kirkcaldy, the deponent asked George Robertson, panel, what was become of the collector's purse of gold, George answered that Andrew Wilson, the other panel, told him that William Hall got the purse; upon which the deponent inquired at Hall about it, and added that unless he confessed and discovered where the purse was, he could not expect that the promises made would be kept to him; when after some entreaty Hall told deponent that he had dropped it upon being seized in a wet furr near a dung-hill, and accordingly the deponent went back to Pittenweem, and upon application to Bailie Andrew Fowler, of Pittenweem, and in his presence the purse was found near to a dung-hill between Anstruther-Wester and Pittenweem, in the spot described by Hall, with fifty-two guineas and a-half in it, which purse and gold was given to the deponent, and the purse exhibited in court being shown to him, he thinks it is the very same purse.

History has not been backward with a question. Why did not the Confederate forces press the pursuit to the Potomac, twenty-five miles away? Why did they not cross that river? Why did they not take Washington? History depones that it was a terror-stricken city and that it might have been stormed, and so, perhaps, the great war ended ere it had well begun.

And all this is truth, as he shall answer to God. John Galloway, servant to Patrick Galloway, horse-hirer in Kinghorn, aged twenty-six, depones that at the time libelled, William Hall came to the deponent's master's house in Kinghorn, and desired him to get two horses, one for himself and one for the deponent, telling him that they were going to Anstruther to get some brandy; and that George Robertson and Andrew Wilson were to be their masters and pay their expenses; and desired him to go to the houses where they then were.

Depones that the three panels and the deponent went from Anstruther to Pittenweem on foot, between ten and eleven o'clock at night. Andrew Wilson having asked the landlady if she could lodge any casks of brandy for him, she desired him to speak low, because the collector was in the house; upon which Wilson said, Is he here? She answered, he was.

Depones when they went in to the house they saw Andrew Wilson standing at the door of the room where the collector was lodged, and the lower part of the door broken; that upon seeing the door broken, he, the deponent, asked Wilson what it meant? or what he would be at? to which Wilson answered, that he had lost a great deal of money, and understood that there was some of it there, and was resolved to have it back again; upon which the deponent said to him, that he would have nothing to do in the matter.

Depones that Andrew Wilson went again into the room, and brought out a cloak-bag, which he desired the deponent to carry, which he refused to do.

Depones that the cutlass now produced is the same that George Robertson had in his hand at Widow Fowler's house. Causa scienticæ patet. And this is truth, as he shall answer to God, and depones he cannot write. Upon the indictment against the panels being read in court, they all pled "Not guilty," and certain defences were offered for them.

"Farther depones, that, time and place aforesaid, the said A.B. said to deponent, 'If you come another step nearer I'll kick you to hell' which the deponent verily believes he would have done." Most of the bitterest legal jokes are at the expense of the class who have to carry the law into effect.

Being further examined, depones that as Wilson and Hall and the deponent were on the road from Pittenweem to Anstruther, a little to the west of Sir John Anstruther's house, they met Mr Clerk, the supervisor, and some soldiers, who, having challenged him who they were, one of the soldiers seized Hall with his halbert, upon which Andrew Wilson and the deponent made their escape.