Five minutes later--that is to say ten minutes before the murder had been committed, on the evidence of the dead man's watch--he had paid a visit to a lady living near Pardon's Piece; and had remained with her, until his watch, consulted once more on leaving the lady's house, informed him that it was a quarter to nine.
Here was the defense called an "alibi." It entirely satisfied Mr.
Dubourg's friends.

To satisfy justice also, it was necessary to call the lady as a witness.

In the meantime, another purely formal question was put to Mr.Dubourg.Did he know anything of the murdered man?
With some appearance of confusion, Mr.Dubourg admitted that he had been induced (by a friend) to employ the man on some work.

Further interrogation extracted from him the following statement of facts.
That the work had been very badly done--that an exorbitant price had been charged for it--that the man, on being remonstrated with, had behaved in a grossly impertinent manner--that an altercation had taken place between them--that Mr.Dubourg had seized the man by the collar of his coat, and had turned him out of the house--that he had called the man an infernal scoundrel (being in a passion at the time), and had threatened to "thrash him within an inch of his life" (or words to that effect) if he ever presumed to come near the house again; that he had sincerely regretted his own violence the moment he recovered his self-possession; and, lastly, that, on his oath (the altercation having occurred six weeks ago), he had never spoken to the man, or set eyes on the man since.
As the matter then stood, these circumstances were considered as being unfortunate circumstances for Mr.Dubourg--nothing more.

He had his "alibi" to appeal to, and his character to appeal to; and nobody doubted the result.
The lady appeared as witness.
Confronted with Mr.Dubourg on the question of time, and forced to answer, she absolutely contradicted him, on the testimony of the clock on her own mantelpiece.