ituted--it seemed
unlikely that Reilly had a single chance. Had his trial, he said, taken
place previous to that of Whitecraft's, he might have escaped many of
the consequences of Whitecraft's conviction; but now, should the latter
be convicted, the opposing party would die in the jury-box rather than
let Reilly escape.

CHAPTER XXIV.--Jury of the Olden Time

--Preparations--The Scales of Justice.

At last the trial came on, and Sir Robert Whitecraft, the great champion
of Protestantism--a creed which he did not believe--was conducted into
the court-house and placed in the dock. He was dressed in his best
apparel, in order to distinguish himself from common culprits, and to
give this poor external evidence of his rank, with a hope that it might
tell, to a certain extent at least, upon the feeling of the jury. When
placed in the dock, a general buzz and bustle agitated the whole
court His friends became alert, and whispered to each other with much
earnestness, and a vast number of them bowed to him, and shook hands
with him, and advised him to be cool, and keep up his spirits. His
appearance, however, was any thing but firm; his face was deadly pale,
his eyes dull and cowardly, his knees trembled so much that he was
obliged to support himself on the front of the dock.

At length the trial commenced, and the case having been opened by a
young lawyer, a tall, intellectual-looking man, about the middle age,
of pale but handsome features, and an eye of singular penetration and
brilliancy, rose; and after pulling up his gown at the shoulders,
and otherwise adjusting it, proceeded to lay a statement of this
extraordinary case before the jury.

He dwelt upon "the pain which he felt in contemplating a gentleman of
rank and vast wealth occupying the degraded position of a felon, but
not, he was sorry to say, of a common felon. The circumstances, my lord,
and gentlemen of the jury, which have brought the prisoner before you
this day, involve a long catalogue of crimes that as far transcend, in
the hideousness of their guilt, the offences of a common felon as his
rank and position in life do that of the humblest villain who ever stood
before a court of justice.

"The position, gentlemen, of this country has for a long series of years
been peculiar, anomalous, and unhappy. Divided as it is, and has been,
by the bitter conflict between two opposing creeds and parties, it is
not to be wondered at that it should be a mel