to acquaint him with the crime of which he was accused.

Exhibiting no surprise at this piece of information, which,
considering he had been lying under the accusation for two months, was
perhaps hardly to be wondered at, Mr. Hall in emphatic tones
pronounced himself innocent.

'What?' said the clerk of arraigns, stretching anxiously forward.

Mr. Hall repeated his sentiments.

'What does he say?' exclaimed the clerk of arraigns, appealing to the
court generally for assistance.

The response was a loud but confused roar of voices from the Junior
Bar, out of which the only clear sound that penetrated to the
unfortunate man's brain was the word 'guilty.'

'He says he's guilty!' he remarked to his clerk, in what he intended
for an aside, but which was perfectly audible over the whole building.

At this point the judge, becoming impatient, leant over and tapped the
clerk of arraigns on the shoulder. He turned round.

'He pleads guilty, my lord,' he said, thinking that the judge wished
for information.

'No, he doesn't, Mr. Hughes. He said "Not guilty,"' answered the
judge.

Mr. Hughes was nearly beside himself by this time. Leaning forward in
the direction of the prisoner, he shouted fiercely:

'What _do_ you say? Are you guilty or not?'

'No,' came in tones loud enough for him to hear at last.

'Then _why_ can't you speak distinctly? The names you are about to
hear called are those of the jurors who are to try you if you have
any objection to them or any of them you shall make it as they come to
the book to be sworn and before they are sworn and you shall be heard.
John Henry Mugglewrath, stand up.'

And, leaving this overwhelming communication to gradually make itself
clear to the prisoner's mind, the clerk of arraigns went on swearing
in the jury as hard as he could go, with the assistance of the judge's
clerk (who recited the oath) and his own clerk (who handed the
Testament, as it is called, though really containing only the works of
the four Evangelists). It need scarcely be observed that the jurors
never came to the book at all. The book came to them.

A rather flighty young counsel, who seemed to consider the whole thing
somewhat in the light of a joke, or a species of amateur theatricals
on a large scale, having presented the case for the prosecution, Mr.
Hall was called upon for his defence.

It then came out that the poor man, than whom no more honest creature
ever walked the earth, had been m