ght up before a magistrate, and, by force of the new evidence, fully
committed for trial on the charge of murdering Arthur Constant. Then
men's thoughts centered again on the Mystery, and the solution of the
inexplicable problem agitated mankind from China to Peru.

In the middle of February, the great trial befell. It was another of the
opportunities which the Chancellor of the Exchequer neglects. So
stirring a drama might have easily cleared its expenses--despite the
length of the cast, the salaries of the stars, and the rent of the
house--in mere advance booking. For it was a drama which (by the rights
of Magna Charta) could never be repeated; a drama which ladies of
fashion would have given their earrings to witness, even with the
central figure not a woman. And there was a woman in it anyhow, to judge
by the little that had transpired at the magisterial examination, and
the fact that the country was placarded with bills offering a reward for
information concerning a Miss Jessie Dymond. Mortlake was defended by
Sir Charles Brown-Harland, Q. C., retained at the expense of the
Mortlake Defense Fund (subscriptions to which came also from Australia
and the Continent), and set on his mettle by the fact that he was the
accepted labor candidate for an East-end constituency. Their Majesties,
Victoria and the Law, were represented by Mr. Robert Spigot, Q. C.

Mr. Spigot, Q. C., in presenting his case, said: "I propose to show that
the prisoner murdered his friend and fellow-lodger, Mr. Arthur Constant,
in cold blood, and with the most careful premeditation; premeditation so
studied, as to leave the circumstances of the death an impenetrable
mystery for weeks to all the world, though fortunately without
altogether baffling the almost superhuman ingenuity of Mr. Edward Wimp,
of the Scotland Yard Detective Department. I propose to show that the
motives of the prisoner were jealousy and revenge; jealousy not only of
his friend's superior influence over the workingmen he himself aspired
to lead, but the more commonplace animosity engendered by the disturbing
element of a woman having relations to both. If, before my case is
complete, it will be my painful duty to show that the murdered man was
not the saint the world has agreed to paint him, I shall not shrink from
unveiling the truer picture, in the interests of justice, which cannot
say _nil nisi bonum_ even of the dead. I propose to show that the murder
was committed by the pr