n, a great
sorrow to me to see such a one as you subjected to so unmerited an
ignominy; but a man educated in the laws of his country, as you
have been, and understanding its constitution fundamentally, as you
do, will probably have acknowledged that, great as has been the
misfortune to you personally, nothing more than a proper attempt has
been made to execute justice. I trust that you may speedily find
yourself able to resume your place among the legislators of the
country." Thus Phineas Finn was acquitted, and the judges, collecting
up their robes, trooped off from the bench, following the long line
of their assessors who had remained even to that hour to hear the
last word of the trial. Mr. Chaffanbrass collected his papers, with
the assistance of Mr. Wickerby,--totally disregardful of his junior
counsel, and the Attorney and Solicitor-General congratulated each
other on the successful termination of a very disagreeable piece of
business.

And Phineas was discharged. According to the ordinary meaning of the
words he was now to go about his business as he pleased, the law
having no further need of his person. We can understand how in common
cases the prisoner discharged on his acquittal,--who probably in
nine cases out of ten is conscious of his own guilt,--may feel the
sweetness of his freedom and enjoy his immunity from danger with a
light heart. He is received probably by his wife or young woman,--or
perhaps, having no wife or young woman to receive him, betakes
himself to his usual haunts. The interest which has been felt in his
career is over, and he is no longer the hero of an hour;--but he is a
free man, and may drink his gin-and-water where he pleases. Perhaps
a small admiring crowd may welcome him as he passes out into the
street, but he has become nobody before he reaches the corner. But it
could not be so with this discharged prisoner,--either as regarded
himself and his own feelings, or as regarded his friends. When
the moment came he had hardly as yet thought about the immediate
future,--had not considered how he would live, or where, during the
next few months. The sensations of the moment had been so full,
sometimes of agony and at others of anticipated triumph, that he had
not attempted as yet to make for himself any schemes. The Duchess of
Omnium had suggested that he would be received back into society with
an elaborate course of fashionable dinners; but that view of his
return to the world had ce