e determined
interposition of the prisoner at the bar, an unlikely thing if he was
ruining himself thereby! That Sturk's brain had been shattered, and not
cleared from hallucinations before he died; that having uttered the
monstrous dream, in all its parts incredible, which was the sole
foundation of the indictment against that every way respectable and
eminent gentleman who stood there, the clerk, Irons, having heard
something of it, had conceived the plan of swearing to the same story,
for the manifest purpose of securing thereby the favour of the young
Lord Dunoran, with whom he had been in conference upon this very subject
without ever once having hinted a syllable against Mr. Paul Dangerfield
until after Doctor Sturk's dream had been divulged; and the idea of
fixing the guilt of Beauclerc's murder upon that gentleman of wealth,
family, and station, occurred to his intriguing and unscrupulous mind.

Mr. Dangerfield, in the dock nodded sometimes, or sneered or smirked
with hollow cheeks, or shook his head in unison with the passing
sentiment of the speaker, directing, through that hot atmosphere, now
darkening into twilight, a quick glance from time to time upon the
aspect of the jury, the weather-gauge of his fate, but altogether with a
manly, sarcastic, and at times a somewhat offended air, as though he
should say, ''Tis somewhat too good a jest that I, Paul Dangerfield,
Esq., a man of fashion, with my known character, and worth nigh two
hundred thousand pounds sterling, should stand here, charged with
murdering a miserable Chapelizod doctor!' The minutes had stolen away;
the judge read his notes by candle-light, and charged, with dry and
cranky emphasis, dead against that man of integrity, fashion, and
guineas; and did not appear a bit disturbed at the idea of hanging him.

When the jury went in he had some soup upon the bench, and sipped it
with great noise. Mr. Dangerfield shook hands with his counsel, and
smirked and whispered. Many people there felt queer, and grew pale in
the suspense, and the general gaze was fixed upon the prisoner with a
coarse curiosity, of which he seemed resolutely unconscious; and five
minutes passed by and a minute or two more--it seemed a very long
time--the minute-hands of the watches hardly got on at all--and then the
door of the jury-room opened, and the gentlemen came stumbling in,
taking off their hats, and silence was called. There was no need; and
the foreman, with a very pal