In fact, after about twenty minutes of cross-examination, he had to admit that he had given but little thought to the interview with the lady at the time, and certainly not in connection with the murder of Lady Donaldson, until he had read in the papers that a young lady had been arrested.
"Then he and his clerk talked the matter over, it appears, and together they had certainly recollected that a lady had brought some beautiful earrings for sale on a day which _must have been_ the very morning after the murder.

If Sir James Fenwick's object was to discredit this special witness, he certainly gained his point.
"All the pomposity went out of Mr.Campbell, he became flurried, then excited, then he lost his temper.

After that he was allowed to leave the court, and Sir James Fenwick resumed his seat, and waited like a vulture for its prey.
"It presented itself in the person of Mr.Campbell's clerk, who, before the Procurator Fiscal, had corroborated his employer's evidence in every respect.

In Scotland no witness in any one case is present in court during the examination of another, and Mr.Macfarlane, the clerk, was, therefore, quite unprepared for the pitfalls which Sir James Fenwick had prepared for him.

He tumbled into them, head foremost, and the eminent advocate turned him inside out like a glove.
"Mr.Macfarlane did not lose his temper; he was of too humble a frame of mind to do that, but he got into a hopeless quagmire of mixed recollections, and he too left the witness-box quite unprepared to swear as to the day of the interview with the lady with the diamond earrings.
"I dare say, mind you," continued the man in the corner with a chuckle, "that to most people present, Sir James Fenwick's cross-questioning seemed completely irrelevant.