d.

And so Madame Goesler started for Prague with the determination
of being back, if possible, before the trial began. It was to be
commenced at the Old Bailey towards the end of June, and people
already began to foretell that it would extend over a very long
period. The circumstances seemed to be simple; but they who
understood such matters declared that the duration of a trial
depended a great deal more on the public interest felt in the matter
than upon its own nature. Now it was already perceived that no
trial of modern days had ever been so interesting as would be this
trial. It was already known that the Attorney-General, Sir Gregory
Grogram, was to lead the case for the prosecution, and that the
Solicitor-General, Sir Simon Slope, was to act with him. It had been
thought to be due to the memory and character of Mr. Bonteen, who
when he was murdered had held the office of President of the Board of
Trade, and who had very nearly been Chancellor of the Exchequer, that
so unusual a task should be imposed on these two high legal officers
of the Government. No doubt there would be a crowd of juniors with
them, but it was understood that Sir Gregory Grogram would himself
take the burden of the task upon his own shoulders. It was declared
everywhere that Sir Gregory did believe Phineas Finn to be guilty,
but it was also declared that Sir Simon Slope was convinced he was
innocent. The defence was to be entrusted to the well-practised
but now aged hands of that most experienced practitioner Mr.
Chaffanbrass, than whom no barrister living or dead ever rescued more
culprits from the fangs of the law. With Mr. Chaffanbrass, who quite
late in life had consented to take a silk gown, was to be associated
Mr. Serjeant Birdbolt,--who was said to be employed in order that the
case might be in safe hands should the strength of Mr. Chaffanbrass
fail him at the last moment; and Mr. Snow, who was supposed to handle
a witness more judiciously than any of the rising men, and that
subtle, courageous, eloquent, and painstaking youth, Mr. Golightly,
who now, with no more than ten or fifteen years' practice, was
already known to be earning his bread and supporting a wife and
family.

But the glory of this trial would not depend chiefly on the array of
counsel, nor on the fact that the Lord Chief Justice himself would be
the judge, so much as on the social position of the murdered man and
of the murderer. Noble lords and great statesmen w