Gill and Mr. A. Gill for the defence. Mr.
Besley, Q.C., and Mr. Monckton watched the case, it was said, for the
brothers, Lord Douglas of Hawick and Lord Alfred Douglas.

While waiting for the judge, the buzz of talk in the court grew loud;
everybody agreed that the presence of Sir Edward Clarke gave Oscar an
advantage. Mr. Carson was not so well known then as he has since
become; he was regarded as a sharp-witted Irishman who had still his
spurs to win. Some knew he had been at school with Oscar, and at
Trinity College was as high in the second class as Oscar was in the
first. It was said he envied Oscar his reputation for brilliance.

Suddenly the loud voice of the clerk called for silence.

As the judge appeared everyone stood up and in complete stillness Sir
Edward Clarke opened for the prosecution. The bleak face, long upper
lip and severe side whiskers made the little man look exactly like a
nonconformist parson of the old days, but his tone and manner were
modern--quiet and conversational. The charge, he said, was that the
defendant had published a false and malicious libel against Mr. Oscar
Wilde. The libel was in the form of a card which Lord Queensberry had
left at a club to which Mr. Oscar Wilde belonged: it could not be
justified unless the statements written on the card were true. It
would, however, have been possible to have excused the card by a
strong feeling, a mistaken feeling, on the part of a father, but the
plea which the defendant had brought before the Court raised graver
issues. He said that the statement was true and was made for the
public benefit. There were besides a series of accusations in the plea
(everyone held his breath), mentioning names of persons, and it was
said with regard to these persons that Mr. Wilde had solicited them to
commit a grave offence and that he had been guilty with each and all
of them of indecent practices...." My heart seemed to stop. My worst
forebodings were more than justified. Vaguely I heard Clarke's voice,
"grave responsibility ... serious allegations ... credible witnesses
... Mr. Oscar Wilde was the son of Sir William Wilde ..." the voice
droned on and I awoke to feverish clearness of brain. Queensberry had
turned the defence into a prosecution. Why had he taken the risk? Who
had given him the new and precise information? I felt that there was
nothing before Oscar but ruin absolute. Could anything be done? Even
now he could go abroad--even now. I resolv