ence,
I cannot avoid warning the jury that such a course may bear an
interpretation very remote from that which at first sight it seems
to convey. He would wish you to accept this position as the strongest
evidence of innocence; as if, relying on the justice of his cause, he
requires neither guidance nor counsel!

"It will be for you, gentlemen, to determine if the evidence placed
before you admit of such a construction; or whether, on the contrary,
it be not of such a nature that would foil the skill of the craftiest
advocate to shake, and be more effectually rebutted by a general and
vague denial, than by any systematic endeavors to impeach.

"You are not, therefore, to accept this rejection of aid as by any means
a proof of conscious innocence. Far from it. The more correct reading
might show it to be the crafty policy of a man who throughout his whole
life has been as remarkable for self-reliance as for secrecy; who,
confiding in his own skill to direct him in the most difficult
circumstances, places far more reliance on his personal adroitness than
upon the most practised advocacy; and whose depreciatory estimate of
mankind is but the gloomy reflection of a burdened conscience."

It was so late when the counsel had concluded that the court adjourned
its proceedings till the following morning; and the vast assembly which
thronged the building dispersed, deeply impressed with the weighty
charge against the prisoner, and with far less of sympathy than is
usually accorded to those who stand in like predicament.

CHAPTER XVI. AN UNLOOKED-FOR DISCLOSURE.

On the second day of the trial, the court-house was even more densely
crowded than on the first. The rank and station which the accused had
held in society, as well as the mysterious character of the case itself,
had invested the event with an uncommon interest; and long before the
doors were opened, a vast concourse filled the streets, amidst which
were to be seen the equipages of many of the first people of the
country.

Scarcely had the judges taken their places, when every seat in the court
was occupied,--the larger proportion of which displayed the rank and
beauty of the capital, who now thronged to the spot, all animated with
the most eager curiosity, and speculating on the result in a spirit
which, whatever anxiety it involved, as certainly evinced little real
sympathy for the fate of the prisoner. The bold, defiant tone which
Curtis had always assum