o employ some lawyer whose feelings would be more in unison
with his own. But Mr. Low adjured him to make no change. Mr. Wickerby
understood the work and was a most zealous man. His client was
entitled to his services, but to nothing more than his services. And
so Mr. Wickerby carried on the work, fully believing that Phineas
Finn had in truth murdered Mr. Bonteen.

But the prisoner was not without sympathy and confidence. Mr. Low,
Lord Chiltern, and Lady Chiltern, who, on one occasion, came to
visit him with her husband, entertained no doubts prejudicial to his
honour. They told him perhaps almost more than was quite true of the
feelings of the world in his favour. He heard of the friendship and
faith of the Duchess of Omnium, of Madame Goesler, and of Lady Laura
Kennedy,--hearing also that Lady Laura was now a widow. And then at
length his two sisters came over to him from Ireland, and wept and
sobbed, and fell into hysterics in his presence. They were sure that
he was innocent, as was every one, they said, throughout the length
and breadth of Ireland. And Mrs. Bunce, who came to see Phineas in
his prison, swore that she would tear the judge from his bench if he
did not at once pronounce a verdict in favour of her darling without
waiting for any nonsense of a jury. And Bunce, her husband, having
convinced himself that his lodger had not committed the murder, was
zealous in another way, taking delight in the case, and proving that
no jury could find a verdict of guilty.

During that week Phineas, buoyed up by the sympathy of his friends,
and in some measure supported by the excitement of the occasion,
carried himself well, and bore bravely the terrible misfortune to
which he had been subjected by untoward circumstances. But when the
magistrate fully committed him, giving the first public decision on
the matter from the bench, declaring to the world at large that on
the evidence as given, _prima facie_, he; Phineas Finn, must be
regarded as the murderer of Mr. Bonteen, our hero's courage almost
gave way. If such was now the judicial opinion of the magistrate, how
could he expect a different verdict from a jury in two months' time,
when he would be tried before a final court? As far as he could
understand, nothing more could be learned on the matter. All the
facts were known that could be known,--as far as he, or rather his
friends on his behalf, were able to search for facts. It seemed to
him that there was no tittle