ed once more to try and
induce him to fly.

My interest turned from these passionate imaginings to the actual.
Would Sir Edward Clarke fight the case as it should be fought? He had
begun to tell of the friendship between Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred
Douglas; the friendship too between Oscar Wilde and Lady Queensberry,
who on her own petition had been divorced from the Marquis; would he
go on to paint the terrible ill-feeling that existed between Lord
Alfred Douglas and his father, and show how Oscar had been dragged
into the bitter family squabble? To the legal mind this had but little
to do with the case.

We got, instead, a dry relation of the facts which have already been
set forth in this history. Wright, the porter of the Albemarle Club,
was called to say that Lord Queensberry had handed him the card
produced. Witness had looked at the card; did not understand it; but
put it in an envelope and gave it to Mr. Wilde.

Mr. Oscar Wilde was then called and went into the witness box. He
looked a little grave but was composed and serious. Sir Edward Clarke
took him briefly through the incidents of his life: his successes at
school and the University; the attempts made to blackmail him, the
insults of Lord Queensberry, and then directed his attention to the
allegations in the plea impugning his conduct with different persons.
Mr. Oscar Wilde declared that there was no truth in any of these
statements. Hereupon Sir Edward Clarke sat down. Mr. Carson rose and
the death duel began.

Mr. Carson brought out that Oscar Wilde was forty years of age and
Lord Alfred Douglas twenty-four. Down to the interview in Tite Street
Lord Queensberry had been friendly with Mr. Wilde.

"Had Mr. Wilde written in a publication called _The Chameleon_?"

"Yes."

"Had he written there a story called 'The Priest and the Acolyte'?"

"No."

"Was that story immoral?"

Oscar amused everyone by replying:

"Much worse than immoral, it was badly written," but feeling that this
gibe was too light for the occasion he added:

"It was altogether offensive and perfect twaddle."

He admitted at once that he did not express his disapproval of it; it
was "beneath him to concern himself with the effusions of an
illiterate undergraduate."

"Did Mr. Wilde ever consider the effect in his writings of inciting to
immorality?"

Oscar declared that he aimed neither at good nor evil, but tried to
make a beautiful thing. When questioned as to the immoral