sed; but
yet there was a great crowd collected to see the poor fellow pass
by. This was the first of the bitter moments to which he had so
constantly looked forward for the last few months. At length,
however, he was in the dock, and here the high wooden palings, twelve
feet above the ground on which he had to stand, would screen him from
the view of all, save the miserable prisoners beside him and the
policemen who had brought him in,--until he should be called on to
take his place at the bar.

After waiting there for about half an hour, sitting on the rude
benches which surrounded the interior of the dock, with his eyes
fixed on the red lappets of the gaoler's coat which hung over the
palings as he sat upon the bar, he heard the noise of steps in the
court suddenly increased, and the sound of voices hushed; the judge
was taking his seat. Mr. Baron Hamilton, accompanied by a fashionably
dressed young gentleman with a white wand, entered the court at a
side-door, passed behind the jury-box, and sat down on the seat of
judgment, under the dusty red canopy which for many years had nodded
over the wisdom of Ireland's soundest lawyers.

Had that piece of red moreen been gifted with an ear to hear, and
a tongue to tell, what an indifferent account would it give of the
veracity of judges and of the consciences of lawyers! How many
offences had it heard stigmatised by his lordship as the most heinous
that had ever been brought before him in his judicial capacity! How
many murderers, felons, and robbers, described as poor harmless,
innocent, foolish boys, brought into trouble by a love of frolic!
How many witnesses, vainly endeavouring to tell the truth, forced
by the ingenuity of lawyers into falsehood and perjury! What awful
denunciations and what light wit, almost in the same breath! Of what
laughter hardly suppressed by judicial authority would it tell--what
agonizing sobs altogether unsuppressable would it describe--how
many a clever, smiling, self-sufficient barrister would it, from
long knowledge, have learnt to laugh to scorn--of how many a sharp
attorney would it declare the hidden ways! But yards of red moreen
are fitting witnesses for judicial gravities and legal exercises.
They hang profoundly, gravely--nay, all but solemnly--over the
exposition of the criminal. They lend authority to the wrath, and
protection to the wit of the wigged. They awe the criminal, repress
the witnesses, inspire the juror, silence the s