e for the crown being now complete, the judge retired for
some refreshment; and the court buzzed like a hum of bees. Mrs. Gaunt's
lips and throat were parched and her heart quaked.

A woman of quite the lower order thrust forth a great arm and gave her
an orange. Mrs. Gaunt thanked her sweetly; and the juice relieved her
throat.

Also this bit of sympathy was of good omen, and did her heart good.

She buried her face in her hands, and collected all her powers for the
undertaking before her. She had noted down the exact order of her
topics, but no more.

The judge returned; the crier demanded silence; and the prisoner rose,
and turned her eyes modestly but steadily upon those who held her life
in their hands: and, true to the wisdom of her sex, the first thing she
aimed at was--to please.

"My lord, and you gentlemen of the jury, I am now to reply to a charge
of murder, founded on a little testimony, and a good deal of false, but,
I must needs say, reasonable conjecture.

"I am innocent; but, unlike other innocent persons who have stood here
before me, I have no man to complain of.

"The magistrates who committed me proceeded with due caution and
humanity; they weighed my hitherto unspotted reputation, and were in no
hurry to prejudge me; here, in this court, I have met with much
forbearance; the learned counsel for the crown has made me groan under
his abilities; that was his duty; but he said from the first he would do
nothing hard, and he has kept his word; often he might have stopped me;
I saw it in his face. But, being a gentleman and a Christian, as well as
a learned lawyer, methinks he said to himself, 'This is a poor
gentlewoman pleading for her life; let her have some little advantage.'
As for my lord, he has promised to be my counsel, so far as his high
station, and duty to the crown, admit; and he has supported and consoled
me more than once with words of justice, that would not, I think, have
encouraged a guilty person, but have comforted and sustained me beyond
expression. So then I stand here, the victim, not of man's injustice,
but of deceitful appearances, and of honest, but hasty and loose
conjectures.

"These conjectures I shall now sift, and hope to show you how hollow
they are.

"Gentlemen, in every disputed matter the best way, I am told, is to
begin by settling what both parties are agreed in, and so to narrow the
matter. To use that method, then, I do heartily agree with the learned
cou