stomed hand slips
easily in and out of the golden drawer, and all the roads are got by
heart. We have the loan of a horse--before another dawn we will be gone.
O Fortune of great thieves, stand pat! and kindly tune run on! 'Over the
hills and far away.'

"We have been told by the worthy gentlemen, his employers, that so
trustworthy did they consider the prisoner at the bar, so able in their
affairs and assiduous in their service, that this very day it was in
their minds to increase his pay and to raise him quite above his fellow
clerks to an honourable post indeed. He did not give them time,
gentlemen, he did not give them time! The hour is here, the notes are
sewn within the lining of our well-brushed riding-coat, the master key
is in our itching palm! We'll lurk until midnight, then in the dark room
we will unlock the drawer. If we are heard, softly as we step in the
silence of the night--if a watchman come--the worse for the watchman! We
carry pistols, and the butt of one against his forehead will do the
work. For we are bold, gentlemen, we are as bold as Caesar or Buonaparte!
We won't be stopped--we won't! We're for 'Over the hills and far away.'"

The counsel for the prisoner addressed the Judge. "Your Honour, no
watchman, dead or alive, being among the witnesses, and there being no
capable proof of what were or were not my client's thoughts upon the
night in question, I indignantly protest--"

The objection was sustained. The interruption over, the attorney for the
British Merchants went evenly on. "We have Mr. Rand's word for it that
the prisoner had no thought of the watchman, and no intention of using,
even in case of need, the weapons with which it has been proved he was
provided. Mr. Rand must know. As a rule, gentlemen bearing arms about
their persons may be considered the potential users of said arms,
whether the antiquated rapier or the modern pistol--but then, I bethink
me, we are not speaking of men of honour. We are speaking of a small
criminal in a small way, and Mr. Rand assures us that his thoughts
matched his estate--they were humble, they were creeping. Headstrong,
proud, and bold are words too swelling for this low and narrow case. To
wear a weapon with intent to use is one thing, to buckle it on as a mere
trivial, harmless, modish ornament and gewgaw is quite another! We have
Mr. Rand's word for it that it was so worn. Gentlemen, the prisoner,
armed, indeed, as has been proved, was absolutely i