law, what was and what
was not evidence, and asking for a history of such cases--if any there
were--as resembled his own. In fact, it soon appeared that, having
mastered certain details, Davis was determined to conduct his own
defence, and address the jury in his own behalf.

The interest the public takes in a criminal trial is often mainly
dependent on the rank of the persons implicated; not only is sympathy
more naturally attracted to those whose condition in life would seem to
have removed them from the casualties of crime, but, in such cases,
the whole circumstances are sure to be surrounded with features of more
dramatic interest. Now, although Davis by no means occupied that station
which could conciliate such sympathy, he was widely known, and to men of
the first rank in England. The habits of the turf and the ring establish
a sort of acquaintanceship, and even intimacy, between men who have no
other neutral territory in life; and, through these, Davis was on the
most familiar terms with noble lords and honorable gentlemen, who took
his bets and pocketed his money as freely as from their equals.

With these, his indomitable resolution, his "pluck" had made him almost
a favorite. They well knew, too, how they could count upon these same
faculties in any hour of need, and "Old Grog" was the resource in many a
difficulty that none but himself could have confronted.

If his present condition excited no very warm anxiety for his fate, it
at least created the liveliest curiosity to see the man, to watch how he
would comport himself in such a terrible exigency, to hear the sort
of defence he would make, and to mark how far his noted courage would
sustain him in an ordeal so novel and so appalling. The newspapers also
contributed to increase this interest, by daily publishing some curious
story or other illustrating Davis's early life, and, as may be
surmised, not always to his advantage on the score of probity and
honor. Photographers were equally active; so that when, on the eventful
morning, the clerk of the arraigns demanded of the prisoner whether he
pleaded guilty or not guilty, the face and features of the respondent
were familiar to every one in the Court. Some expected to see him
downcast and crestfallen, some looked for a manner of insolent swagger
and pretension. He was equally free from either, and in his calm
but resolute bearing, as he surveyed bench and jury-box, there was
unmistakable dignity and power