ssing congratulations to a maiden
aunt on the occasion of her approaching birthday.

But what really occupied the minds of the spectators, and kept their
lips moving in subdued conversation, was the ending of the judge's
charge.

'He has made up his mind that she is guilty,' whispered Mr. Jenkins,
the stationer from Queen Street, who had come to the court in the
capacity of a common juryman, but had not been among the names first
selected.

'And I don't wonder at it,' replied his neighbour, a farmer from near
Porthstone, who had been summoned in the same way. 'A bad lot, I'll be
bound. Wouldn't say nothing when her was before the magistrates. That
looks bad, don't it?'

'Silence!' bawled a javelin-man just behind them, a rebuke which the
worthy farmer at first thought was meant for himself. But the word
was repeated instantly by other javelin-men, and then he perceived
that the grand jury had at last achieved a stroke of work, and that
the satellites of justice were merely drawing attention to that fact
in their usual impressive manner.

The clerk of arraigns now received the document, and proceeded to
expound its contents in this manner:

'Gentlemen of the Grand Jury, you find a'--here he stopped and
turned it over to read what was on the back, a task which occupied
several seconds; but he completed the sentence as if no break had
occurred--'true bill against'--another pause, he was looking for the
name concealed amid the mazes of technical phraseology. This time the
foreman rashly attempted to help him out by murmuring, 'Joseph Hall.'
The clerk of arraigns turned round and glared at him, then resumed his
investigation, and finally brought out the name in a tone of triumph,
as of one who gloried in overcoming obstacles, and was not to be
baffled by any indictment in the power of man to draw--'Joseph Hall,
for stealing a coat of the value of thirty shillings; also for
receiving the same, knowing it to be stolen.'

He then turned again, and bestowed an impatient nod on the waiting
foreman, who withdrew, a crushed and miserable man.

'Put up Joseph Hall,' was the next command.

The governor of the gaol leant forward and repeated the order to a
warder, who had already heard it perfectly and dived below, apparently
through the solid floor of the court. The next moment Mr. Hall
appeared, with easy nonchalance, and leant forward in a graceful
attitude on the bar of the dock, while the clerk of arraigns proceeded