on to the next
step taken to bring the offenders to Judgment._

_The bill having been found by the grand jury, the prisoner is brought
into the Court where he is to be tried, and set to the bar in the
presence of the judges who are to try him. Then he is usually commanded
to hold up his hand, but this being only a ceremony to make the person
known to the court it may be omitted, or the person indicted saying_ I
am here, _will answer the same end. Then the proper officer reads the
indictment which has been found against him, in English, and when he
hath so done, he demands of the prisoner whether he be guilty or not
guilty of the fact alleged against him, to which the prisoner answers as
he thinks fit, and this answer is styled his plea. That tenderness which
the English Law on all occasions expresses towards those who are to be
brought to answer for crimes alleged against them, requires that at his
arraignment, the prisoner be totally free from any pain or duress which
may disturb his thought and hinder his liberty of pleading as he thinks
fit, and for this reason, even in cases of high treason, irons are taken
off during the time the prisoner is at the bar, where he stands without
any marks of contumely whatsoever._

_But in case the prisoner absolutely refuses to answer, or in an
impertinent manner delay or trifle with the court, then he is deemed a
mute; but if he speaks not at all, nor gives any sign by which the Court
shall be satisfied that he is able to speak, then an inquest of
officers, that is of twelve persons who happen to be by, are to enquire
whether his standing mute arises from his contempt of the Court, or be
really an infirmity under which he labours from the hands of God. If it
be found the latter, then the Court, as counsel for the prisoner, shall
hear the evidence with relation to the fact, and proceed therein as if
the prisoner had pleaded not guilty; but if, on the contrary, the Court
or the inquest shall be satisfied that the prisoner remains a mute only
from obstinacy, then in some cases judgment shall be awarded against him
as if he had pleaded or were found guilty, and in others he shall be
remitted to his penance, that is to suffer what the Law calls_ Peine
forte et dure, _which is pressing, of which the readers will find an
account in the subsequent life of Burnworth_, alias _Frazier; and
therefore I shall not treat further of it here._

_If, from conviction of his own guilt and a consciou