"What became of the hat?" asked the junior counsel for the prosecution. "I don't know. When I found the dog, in a wery bad state indeed, it was
gone." "Now, John Figgs," said Todd's counsel, "could you identify that hat
again among five hundred hats like it?" "Five hundred?" "Yes, or a thousand." "Well, I should say not. It wouldn't be an easy matter to do that, I
take it. I could tell you a particular horse among any lot, but I ain't
so well known in the way of hats." "Is this the hat? Can you deliberately swear that this is the hat in
question?" "I shouldn't like to swear it." "Very well, that will do." John Figgs was permitted to go down upon this, and it was quite evident
that some faint hope was beginning to quicken in the eye of Sweeney
Todd, as he found that his self-appointed counsel began to make so light
of the evidence of the hat. For the moment he quite forgot what proofs
were still to come to fix the deed of murder upon him. Colonel Jeffery was now called. He deposed clearly and distinctly as
follows:--

"I knew Mr. Thornhill, and much regretted his loss. In company with Mr.
Fletcher I went to Todd's shop to make some inquiry about him, to the
effect that he had been shaved there, and had then left. I did not feel
satisfied, and when Mr. Fletcher was found to be in London, I got the
assistance of a friend of mine, named Rathbone, and together we
prosecuted what inquiries we could. I picked up a hat from Todd's
passage, and after putting myself into communication with Sir Richard
Blunt, I delivered the hat to him. I have been in constant communication
with Sir Richard Blunt upon the subject of this inquiry for a long time. We found that the prisoner at the bar had a sort of apprentice or errand
boy in his shop, named Tobias Ragg, and we endeavoured to get some
disclosures from that boy, when he suddenly disappeared. I found him
again on a doorstep in the City, and he has made certain disclosures
which he will repeat in evidence to the court to-day. On the 4th of last
month I accompanied Sir Richard Blunt to a cellar beneath Todd's shop,
and he showed me a contrivance in the roof by which any one could be let
down. We took workmen with us and made certain alterations. I afterwards
accompanied Doctor Steers of the ship Star to the vaults of St.
Dunstan's, and I saw Doctor Steers take a bone from there." "Pray look at that hat, Colonel Jeffery. Is it the same you found at
Todd's door?" "It is." "Did you mark the bone that Doctor Steers took from the vaults of St. Dunstan's?" "I did, and I may state to save trouble, that I placed upon the hat a
private mark by which I am enabled to swear to it." Todd's counsel rose, and in a very respectful voice, he said--

"Did you ever see this String of Pearls, about which so much fuss is
made, colonel?" "Yes; Mr. Thornhill showed it to me." "Oh. Do you know a young lady named Johanna Oakley?" "I had that pleasure." "You had? Have you not now?" "I have the honour of her acquaintance since her marriage; she is now
Mrs. Ingestrie." The counsel seemed to be a little staggered by this answer, but after a
moment or two, he resumed saying--

"Do you know a young lady named Arabella Wilmot?" "I did." "What, colonel, did again? Is she married?" "Yes; that young lady is now Mrs. Jeffery, my wife." The counsel had evidently intended to make some point against the
colonel's evidence, which was completely destroyed by the fact of the
two marriages. But he resumed the attack by changing his ground. "Colonel," he said, "do you know a boy named Tobias Ragg?" "I do. He is a resident in my house." "Will you take upon your self to swear that that boy, or lad, or
whatever he may be called, is in his right senses?" "I will." "Will you swear that he was never confined in a lunatic asylum, from
which he made his escape raving mad, and that since then you have not
kept him to listen to his wild conjectures and dreamy charges against
the prisoner at the bar?" "I will swear that he is not mad, and--"

"Come, sir, I want an answer, yes or no." "Then you will not get one. Your question involves three or four
propositions, some of which may be answered in the negative, and some in
the affirmative; so how can you get a reply of yes or no?" "Come--come, sir. Remember where you are. We want no roundabout speeches
here, but direct answers." "It is impossible to give a direct answer to such a speech as you made. Nothing but ignorance or trickery could induce you to ask such a thing." "We cannot allow such language here, sir. I call upon the court for its
protection against the insolence of this witness." "The court does not think proper to interfere," said the judge, quietly. "Oh, very well. Then I am done." "But I am not," said the colonel. "I can inform you, and all whom it may
concern, that the proprietor of the lunatic asylum, in which the boy,
Ragg, was so unjustly confined, is now in Newgate, awaiting his trial
for that and other offences, and that I have succeeded in completely
breaking up the establishment." The counsel did not think proper to say anything more to the colonel,
who was permitted, after firing this last shot at the enemy, to quit the
witness-box. Sir Richard Blunt was the next witness called, and as his evidence was
expected to be very important indeed, all attention was paid to it. There was that buzz of expectation throughout the court, which is always
to be heard upon such occasions, when anything very important is about
to take place, and every one shifted his place, in order the more
correctly to hear what was going on. The Attorney-General himself arose to pursue the examination of Sir
Richard Blunt. It was evident that the appearance of this witness roused Sweeney Todd
more than anything else had done since the commencement of the
proceedings. His eye lighted up, and setting his teeth hard, he prepared
himself, with his left hand up to his ear, to catch every word that
should fall from the lips of the man who had been his great enemy, and
who had wound around him the web in which he had been caught at last. The appearance of Sir Richard Blunt was very attractive. There was
always about him an air of great candour, and the expression of his
features denoted generosity and boldness in a most astonishing degree. CHAPTER CXXIX. THE TRIAL OF SWEENEY TODD CONTINUED. The peculiar circumstances under which Sir Richard Blunt had found out
all the villany of Todd, and overtook him and Mrs. Lovett in the midst
of their iniquities, were well-known to the people assembled in the
court, and some slight manifestations of applause greeted him as he
stood up in the witness-box. This exhibition of feeling was not noticed by the court, and the
Attorney-General at once began his examination in chief. "Sir Richard," he said, "will you have the kindness to put into the form
of a narration, what you have to say concerning the charge upon which
the prisoner at the bar is arraigned?"