g the thoroughfare clear. It soon became manifest
that the Tichborne crowd, like everything else in connection with
the trial, required especial treatment, and accordingly a carefully
elaborated scheme was prepared. Superintendent Denning had under his
command, for the preservation of peace and order in Palace Yard and
the adjacent thoroughfares, not less than sixty men. One or two were
stationed in the justice-chamber itself, and must by the time the
verdict had been delivered have got pretty well up in the details of
the case. Others guarded the entrance-door; others lined the passage
into the yard, others were disposed about the yard itself; whilst,
after three o'clock, two strong companies stood in reserve in the
sheds that flank the entrance to the Hall. At half past three the
crowd began to assemble, building itself up upon the little nucleus
that had been hanging about all day. The favourite standpoint,
especially in the cold, uncertain winter weather that marked the
conclusion of the trial, was inside Westminster Hall, where the
people were massed on the far side of a temporary barricade which
the Tichborne case called into being, the railing of which was worn
black by the touch of the hands of the faithful.

Outside, in the yard, the crowd momentarily thickened till it formed
a dense lane, opening out from the front of the Hall, and turning to
the left down to the south carriage-gate. The railings in Bridge
Street and St. Margaret's Street were banked with people, and ranks
were formed on the pavement in front of the grass-plot. At a quarter
to four the policemen under the shed received the word of command,
and marched out into St. Margaret's Street, some filing off to take
charge of the gates, whilst the rest were drawn up on the pavement
opposite and at the corner of Bridge Street, with the mission of
preventing rushes after the Claimant's carriage as it drove through.
A few minutes later the distinguished vehicle itself--a plain,
dark-blue brougham, drawn by a finely bred bay mare--drove into the
yard, and, taking up its position a little on one side of the entrance
to the Hall, became the object of curious and respectful consideration.
As the great clock boomed four strokes, the doors of the Court opened,
and the privileged few who had been present at the day's proceedings
issued forth.

The excitement increased as the Court emptied, culminating when,
after a brief lull, the Claimant himself appeared, and