The Perjury of the Clock WE looked at one another in silence.

Both alike, we were obliged to wait a little and recover ourselves.
I may occupy the interval by answering two questions which will arise in your minds in this place.

How did Dubourg come to be tried for his life?
And what was the connection between this serious matter and the false testimony of a clock?
The reply to both these inquiries is to be found in the story which I call the Perjury of the Clock.
In briefly relating this curious incidental narrative (which I take from a statement of the circumstances placed in my possession) I shall speak of our new acquaintance at Browndown--and shall continue to speak of him throughout these pages--by his assumed name.

In the first place, it was the maiden name of his mother, and he had a right to take it if he pleased.

In the second place, the date of our domestic drama at Dimchurch goes back as far as the years 'fifty-eight and 'fifty-nine; and real names are (now that it is all over) of no consequence to anybody.