n the score
of character as was never before brought into one of our courts.
We shall have half the Cabinet. There will be two dukes." Madame
Goesler, as she listened to the admiring enthusiasm of the attorney
while he went on with his list, acknowledged to herself that her
dear friend, the Duchess, had not been idle. "There will be three
Secretaries of State. The Secretary of State for the Home Department
himself will be examined. I am not quite sure that we mayn't get the
Lord Chancellor. There will be Mr. Monk,--about the most popular man
in England,--who will speak of the prisoner as his particular friend.
I don't think any jury would hang a particular friend of Mr. Monk's.
And there will be ever so many ladies. That has never been done
before, but we mean to try it." Madame Goesler had heard all this,
and had herself assisted in the work. "I rather think we shall get
four or five leading members of the Opposition, for they all disliked
Mr. Bonteen. If we could manage Mr. Daubeny and Mr. Gresham, I think
we might reckon ourselves quite safe. I forgot to say that the Bishop
of Barchester has promised."

"All that won't prove his innocence, Mr. Wickerby." Mr. Wickerby
shrugged his shoulders. "If he be acquitted after that fashion men
then will say--that he was guilty."

"We must think of his life first, Madame Goesler," said the attorney.

Madame Goesler when she left the attorney's room was very
ill-satisfied with him. She desired some adherent to her cause who
would with affectionate zeal resolve upon washing Phineas Finn white
as snow in reference to the charge now made against him. But no man
would so resolve who did not believe in his innocence,--as Madame
Goesler believed herself. She herself knew that her own belief was
romantic and unpractical. Nevertheless, the conviction of the guilt
of that other man, towards which she still thought that much could
be done if that coat were found and the making of a secret key were
proved, was so strong upon her that she would not allow herself to
drop it. It would not be sufficient for her that Phineas Finn should
be acquitted. She desired that the real murderer should be hung
for the murder, so that all the world might be sure,--as she was
sure,--that her hero had been wrongfully accused.

"Do you mean that you are going to start yourself?" the Duchess said
to her that same afternoon.

"Yes, I am."

"Then you must be very far gone in love, indeed."

"You would d