A correspondence, afterwards read in the Irish House of Lords, was carried on between the Irish and the English law officers of the crown--for the case, for many reasons, was admitted to be momentous--as to which crime he should be first tried for--the murder of Sturk, or that of Beauclerc.

The latter was, in this respect, the most momentous--that the cancelling of the forfeiture which had ruined the Dunoran family depended upon it.
'But are you not forgetting, Sir,' said Mr.Attorney in consultation, 'that there's the finding of _felo de se_ against him by the coroner's jury ?' 'No, Sir,' answered the crown solicitor, well pleased to set Mr.
Attorney right.

'The jury being sworn, found only that he came by his death, but whether by gout in his stomach, or by other disease, or by poison, they had no certain knowledge; there was therefore no such coroner's verdict, and no forfeiture therefore.' 'And I'm glad to hear it, with all my heart.

I've seen the young gentleman, and a very pretty young nobleman he is,' said Mr.Attorney.
Perhaps he would not have cared if this expression of his good will had got round to my lord.
The result was, however, that their prisoner was to be first tried in Ireland for the murder of Doctor Barnabas Sturk.
A few pieces of evidence, slight, but sinister, also turned up.

Captain Cluffe was quite clear he had seen an instrument in the prisoner's hand on the night of the murder, as he looked into the little bed-chamber of the Brass Castle, so unexpectedly.