eme view of a
jury's duties. However, he reflected that he would have the last word.
He could afford to wait till the summing-up. Meanwhile he took up his
pen and made a note.

'Now, gentlemen, let me say this to you, and let me enforce it with
all the earnestness I can command--the fact that a murder has been
committed is no evidence whatever against the prisoner at the bar.

'No one denies that the crime has been committed. To do so were
absurd. Elderly ladies do not disappear mysteriously in the night like
this unless somebody has an interest in making them disappear. The
whole question for you is this--had the prisoner any such interest?

'Something has been said in this case about jewels. A question--a
shamefully leading and improper question--was put by the counsel for
the prosecution, the junior counsel--who seems to have brought to his
work a bitterness and an amount of prejudice against the unhappy
prisoner which is fortunately rarely met with in a case of this kind;
a demeanour which presents a contrast, indeed, to the moderate and
judicious tone adopted by my learned friend Mr. Prescott, whom I was
sorry to see summoned elsewhere--a question, as I was saying, was put
to the prosecutor Lewis, who was only too ready to take a sinister
hint, with a view of making him swear that the prisoner knew something
about those jewels, about which so much prejudice had been imported
into this case. Gentlemen, you know nothing about jewels. No evidence
has been put before you to-day as to anything of the sort. So far as
you or I can tell, the prisoner was never aware of the existence of
such things. We are bound to assume--you are bound by your oaths to
assume--that there was no such motive to operate upon the prisoner's
mind. What motive was there, then?

'Gentlemen, from the beginning to the end of this case not one motive
has been suggested, not one syllable has been uttered from first to
last, to account for the theory which you are asked to accept, that a
young, beautiful, well-cared-for, and well-brought-up girl has
suddenly, without the smallest provocation, developed the instincts of
a cannibal, and committed a shocking and ferocious murder under
circumstances which would revolt the most bloodthirsty of savages.'

Every word was emphasized by look and gesture. Every word went home to
those who heard it. The crowded Bar stared in astonishment: they had
not believed their colleague to possess such force. But he w