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course disallowed; and the indictment, founded on the conviction 
which had been recorded in 1716, was then read over to him in 
English. He merely repeated that he was the Count de Derwent- 
water, and persisted in refusing to hold up his hand, and to plead 
in the usual form. His counsel, however, took issue on this 
allegation, and moved the postponement of the trial, on the ground 
that two material witnesses were absent. But the court held that 
no sufficient ground was shown for a postponement, and proceeded 
to hear the evidence of the witnesses whom the Crown had at length 
found, to prove the identity of the prisoner with the Charles 
Radcliffe who had been convicted in 1716. Two Hexham men— 
Abraham Bunting and Thomas Mosley—swore to his identity from 
a scar on his face, (said to have been received in a blacksmith’s 
shop when a boy,) and declared that they had seen him march out 
of Hexham at the head of the Earl of Derwentwater’s tenantry in 
October, 1715. One of them swore that he had seen the prisoner 
at Dilston ten years before, and had shown him a trap door leading 
to a vaulted chamber below the floor of Dilston Hall. 
A writer of the day says that “none of them could come up 
to the point until a great officer was sworn, who deposed that Mr. 
Radcliffe, since his confinement in the Tower, had acknowledged 
to him when they had been drinking a glass of wine together, that 
he was the same person. But Mr. Radcliffe objected to the 
credibility of this witness, because he had confessed to him that he 
believed neither in God nor devil; and it would be an absurdity to 
swear a man upon the bible who had no faith in anything it 
contained.” 
This objection was over-ruled, and no other defence being 
made, after a trial of seven hours duration, the jury having 
consulted ten minutes, found their verdict, that the prisoner was 
the same Charles Radcliffe who had been convicted of high treason 
in 1716. It was then ordered that he should be beheaded on the 
8th of December. On hearing this sentence, he merely remarked 
that he wished a later day had been appointed, to afford time for 
his acquainting some friends in France, so that his brother, the 
Earl of Morton, and he, might have set out on their journey at the 
same time. 
