ge,
Joseph Ruthven, sat on the bench, with two associate judges, the one on
his right hand, the other on his left. A few lawyers and law officers
sat or stood around in groups. On the judge's extreme right, a little
below the bench, two long seats were occupied by witnesses for the
prosecution; on the extreme left was the jury-box; in the intermediate
space in front of the bench, stood the prisoner's dock, the witness's
stand, and the counsel's tables. The remaining portion of the room,
nearest the front doors, was filled up with the spectators' seats. But
very few spectators were present; only some dozen villagers who had
nothing better to do than to loiter there, and some score of farmers who
had that morning come to market, and had dropped in to see what might be
going on at the court.

Great was their excitement when they saw Mrs. Berners led in by the
sheriff, and followed by her friends. They had not expected her trial
would come on so soon. Indeed, an absurd rumor had prevailed that she
would not be brought to trial at all. But now here she was, sure enough,
and they stared at her with dilated eyes and open mouths.

Sybil impulsively put up her hand to drop her veil; but remembering
Beatrix Pendleton's words, she refrained, and turned and swept her proud
eye round upon the gazers, whose lids fell under her glance.

She was not put into the dock, but offered a chair at the table with her
counsel. She bowed to the bench before taking her seat. On her right sat
her husband; on her left, her friend Beatrix Pendleton, near her
counsel. She was very much agitated, but a pressure from the hand of her
husband, a glance from the eyes of Ishmael Worth, helped to reassure
her.

Nor must the fidelity of another friend, a poor little four-footed
friend, be forgotten. Little Nelly had faithfully followed her mistress,
and now lay curled up at her feet.

Meanwhile the preliminary forms of the trial proceeded. The jurymen were
sworn in and took their seats. Then Mr. Sheridan touched his client's
hand to call her attention, while the clerk of arraigns, standing up
with an open document in his hands directed the accused to listen to
the reading of the indictment.

Sybil raised her head and became attentive, while that officer read
aloud the terrible instrument, setting forth that Sybil Berners of Black
Hall, in the county of Blank, being instigated thereto by diabolical
agency, did, with malice aforethought, on the night of