s ear; and then
covering his face with his handkerchief, leaned his head on the rail
before him.

"It is necessary, my lords," said the lawyer, "that I should explain the
reason of my client's emotion, and at the same time unveil the baseness
which has dictated this last effort of the prisoner, if not to injure
the reputation, to wound the feelings, of my client. The individual
whose name has been mentioned was the half brother of my client; and
whose unhappy connection with the disastrous events of the year '98
involved him in a series of calamities which ended in his death,
which took place in the year 1800, but some months earlier than the
circumstance which we now are investigating. The introduction of this
unhappy man's name was, then, a malignant effort of the prisoner to
insult the feelings of my client, on which your lordships and the jury
will place its true value."

A murmur of disapprobation ran through the crowded court as these words
were spoken; but whether directed against me or against the comment of
the lawyer I could not determine; nor, such was the confusion I then
felt, could I follow the remainder of the advocate's address with
anything like clearness. At last he concluded; and the chief justice,
after a whispered conversation with his brethren of the bench, thus
began:--

"Gentlemen of the jury, the case which you have this day to try, to my
mind presents but one feature of doubt and difficulty. The great fact
for your consideration is, to determine to which of two opposite and
conflicting testimonies you will accord your credence. On the one side
you have the story of the prosecutor, a man of position and character,
high in the confidence of honorable men, and invested with all the
attributes of rank and station; on the other, you have a narrative
strongly coherent in some parts, equally difficult to account for in
others, given by the prisoner, whose life, even by his own showing, has
none of those recommendations to your good opinions which are based
on loyalty and attachment to the constitution of these realms. Both
testimonies are unsupported by any collateral evidence. The prosecutor's
regiment is in India, and the only witnesses he could adduce are many
thousand miles off. The prisoner appeals also to the absent, but with
less of reason; for if we could call this man, M'Keown, before us,--if,
I say, we had this same Darby M'Keown in court--"

A tremendous uproar in the hall without drow