at if time were allowed him to collect evidence, and obtain
legal assistance, he could disprove the charge, or at least invalidate
the evidence of the two accusers.

In consequence of these representations, the case was adjourned to
another day, when, so much was the expectation excited by the rumour of
the affair, that at the opening of the court the hall was crowded almost
to suffocation, and all the avenues were completely beset.

O'Mara appeared, with his counsel, the celebrated Mr Adolphus--the
Ballantyne of his day--of Old Bailey renown and forensic prowess.

Mr Sergeant Runnington very obligingly stated to Mr Adolphus the
previous proceeding, directed the depositions to be laid before him,
and allowed him time to peruse them. Mr Adolphus having gone through the
document, requested that the witnesses might be brought into court, that
he might cross-question them separately; which being ordered, Wright was
first put forward--the man who had received the L100, enlightened the
Mr Mackenzie, and who was charged with feloniously stealing the above
amount.

After the usual questions, very immaterial in the present case, but
answered, the witness went on to say that, O'Mara called at his lodgings
and said, if he (Wright) could not persuade Mr Mackenzie to come from
London, he was not to leave him, but write to him (O'Mara), and he would
go to town, and win all his money. He had, on a former occasion,
told the witness, that he could win all Mackenzie's money at child's
play--that he could toss up and win ninety times out of one hundred; he
had told both him and Ford, that if they met with any gentleman who did
not like the game of _Rouge et Noir_, and would bring them to his house,
he was always provided with cards, dice, and backgammon tables, to win
their money from them.

The learned counsel then cross-questioned the witness as to various
matters, in the usual way, but tending, of course, to damage him by
the answers which the questions necessitated--a horrible, but, perhaps,
necessary ordeal perpetuated in our law-procedure. In these answers
there was something like prevarication; so that the magistrate, Mr
Sergeant Runnington, asked the witness at the close of the examination,
whether he had any previous acquaintance with the gentlemen who had
engaged him at half-a-crown a game, and then so candily communicated to
him all their schemes? He said, none whatever. 'But,' said the Sergeant,
'you were in the daily hab