  Still he offered the prisoner a chance,
saying--

“If thou canst say aught in thy behalf, speak.”

“Nought that will avail, my King.  I am innocent, yet cannot I make
it appear.  I have no friends, else might I show that I was not in
Islington that day; so also might I show that at that hour they name I
was above a league away, seeing I was at Wapping Old Stairs; yea more,
my King, for I could show, that whilst they say I was _taking_ life, I
was _saving_ it.