Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L Sayers

"Nobody; I myself; farewell. " - Othello

After the reading of Cathcart's letter even the appearance of the prisoner in the witness-box came as an anticlimax. In the face of the Attorney-General's cross-examination he maintained stoutly that he had wandered on the moor for several hours without meeting anybody, though he was forced to admit that he had gone downstairs at 11: 30, and not at 2: 30, as he had stated at the inquest. Sir Wigmore Wrinching made a great point of this, and, in a spirited endeavor to suggest that Cathcart was blackmailing Denver, pressed his questions so hard that Sir Impey Biggs, Mr. Murbles, Lady Mary, and Bunter had a nervous feeling that learned counsel's eyes were boring through the walls to the side-room where, apart from the other witnesses, Mrs. Grimethorpe sat waiting. After lunch Sir Impey Biggs rose to make his plea for the defense.