t the bar were asked how they would be tried, Ralph
turned to the bench and said he had been kept close prisoner for seven
days, none having access to him. Was he to be called to trial, not
knowing the charge against him until he was ordered to the bar?

No attention was paid to his complaint, and the jury was empanelled.
Then counsel rose, and with the customary circumlocution opened the
case against the prisoners. In the first place, he undertook to
indicate the motive and occasion of the horrid, vile, and barbarous
crime which had been committed, and which, he declared, scarce
anything in the annals of justice could parallel; then, he would set
forth the circumstances under which the act was perpetrated; and,
finally, he proposed to show what grounds existed for inferring that
the prisoners were guilty thereof.

He told the court that the deceased James Wilson, as became him
according to the duty of his secret office, had been a very zealous
person. In his legal capacity he had sought and obtained a warrant for
the arrest of the prisoner Ray. That warrant had never been served.
Why? The dead body of Wilson had been found at daybreak in a lonely
road not far from the homes of both prisoners. The warrant was not on
the body. It had been missing to that day. His contention would be
that the prisoners had obtained knowledge of the warrant; that they
had waylaid the deceased agent in a place and at a time most
convenient for the execution of their murderous design. With the
cunning of clever criminals, they had faced the subsequent coroner's
inquiry. One of them, being the less artful, had naturally come under
suspicion. The other, a cunning and dangerous man, had even taken an
active share in defending his confederate. But being pursued by a
guilty conscience, they dared not stay at the scene of their crime,
and both had fled from their homes. All this would be justified by
strong and undeniable circumstances.

Counsel resumed his seat amid the heavy breathings and inaudible
mutterings of the throng behind him. He was proceeding to call his
witnesses, when Ralph asked to be heard.

"Is it the fact that I surrendered of my own free will and choice?"

"It is." "Is it assumed that I was prompted to that step also by a
guilty conscience?"

Counsel realized that he was placed on the horns of a dilemma.
Ignoring Ralph, he said,--

"My lords, the younger prisoner _did_ surrender. He surrendered to a
warrant charging hi