Thereafter, His Majesty's Advocate for proof adduced the following witnesses; viz.--
JEAN GHENT, relict of Arthur Davies, serjeant in the regiment commanded by Lieutenant-General Guise, aged about thirty-three years, who being solemnly sworn, purged of malice and partial council, and interrogate: Depones, That she was married for the space of ten months to Serjeant Davies the day he was missing, and that in summer seventeen hundred and forty-nine, her husband, with eight private men under his command, marched from Aberdeen to Dubrach in Braemar, in the shire of Aberdeen, which was assigned to him as his station; and that there was another party of the same regiment whose head-quarters was at Aberdeen, stationed at the Spittle of Glenlee, within eight miles of Dubrach, under the command of a corporal: That the two parties did meet twice a-week in patrol, about half way between the foresaid two places: That her husband was a keen sportsman, and used to go out a-shooting or fishing generally every day; and when he went along with the party on patrol, sent the men home and followed his sport; and on other occasions went out a-shooting by himself alone: That her husband was a sober man, a good manager, and had saved money to the value of about fifteen guineas and a half, which he had in gold, and kept in a green silk purse, which he inclosed within a leather purse along with any silver he had: That besides this gold, he generally wore a silver watch in his pocket, and two gold rings upon one of his fingers, one of which was of pale yellow gold, and had a little lump of gold raised upon it in the form of a seal, with a gold stamp on the inside of the ring, and a weaved line like a worm round the upper side of the plate: That the other was a plain gold ring, which the deponent had got from David Holland, her first husband, with the letters D. H. on the inside, and had this posie on it, "When this you see remember me:" That the said David Holland was paymaster-serjeant in General Guise's regiment: And further depones, That the said Serjeant Davies commonly wore a pair of large silver buckles in his shoes, marked also with the same letters D. H. in the inside, which likewise had belonged to her said former husband, as also wore silver knee-buckles, and had two dozen silver buttons upon a double-breasted vest, made of stript lutstring: That he frequently had about him a folding penknife, that had a brown tortoise-shell handle, and a plate upon the end of it, on which was cut a naked boy, or some such device, with which he often sealed his letters: That one day when he was dressing some hooks while the deponent was by, she observed that he was cutting his hat with his penknife, and she went towards him, and asked him what he meant by cutting his hat? To which he answered, that he was cutting his name upon it: To which the deponent replied, she could not see what he could mean by putting his name upon a thing of no value, and pulled it out of his hand in a jocular way, but he followed her, and took the hat from her, and she observed that the A. was then cut out in the hat; and after he got it, she saw him cut out the letter D., which he did in a hurry, and which the deponent believed was occasioned by the toying that was between them concerning this matter, for when she observed it, she said to him you have made a pretty sort of work of it, by having misplaced the letters: To which he answered, that it was her fault, having caused him do it in a hurry.