the prisoner
bowed respectfully to his lordship). The witness of the postilions
and of the valet was no less concise; nor could all the ingenuity
of Clifford's counsel shake any part of their evidence in his
cross-examination. The main witness depended on by the crown was now
summoned, and the solemn countenance of Peter MacGrawler rose on the
eyes of the jury. One look of cold and blighting contempt fell on him
from the eye of the prisoner, who did not again deign to regard him
during the whole of his examination.

The witness of MacGrawler was delivered with a pomposity worthy of
the ex-editor of the "Asinaeum." Nevertheless, by the skill of Mr.
Dyebright, it was rendered sufficiently clear a story to leave an
impression on the jury damnatory to the interests of the prisoner.
The counsel on the opposite side was not slow in perceiving the ground
acquired by the adverse party; so, clearing his throat, he rose with a
sneering air to the cross-examination.

"So, so," began Mr. Botheram, putting on a pair of remarkably large
spectacles, wherewith he truculently regarded the witness,--"so, so,
Mr. MacGrawler,--is that your name, eh, eh? Ah, it is, is it? A very
respectable name it is too, I warrant. Well, sir, look at me. Now,
on your oath, remember, were you ever the editor of a certain
thing published every Wednesday, and called the 'Athenaeum,' or the
'Asinaeum,' or some such name?"

Commencing with this insidious and self-damnatory question, the learned
counsel then proceeded, as artfully as he was able, through a series
of interrogatories calculated to injure the character, the respectable
character, of MacGrawler, and weaken his testimony in the eyes of the
jury. He succeeded in exciting in the audience that feeling of merriment
wherewith the vulgar are always so delighted to intersperse the dull
seriousness of hanging a human being. But though the jury themselves
grinned, they were not convinced. The Scotsman retired from the
witness-box "scotched," perhaps, in reputation, but not "killed" as
to testimony. It was just before this witness concluded, that Lord
Mauleverer caused to be handed to the judge a small slip of paper,
containing merely these words in pencil:--

DEAR BRANDON,--A dinner waits you at Mauleverer Park, only three
miles hence. Lord--and the Bishop of--meet you. Plenty of news
from London, and a letter about you, which I will show to no one
till we meet. Make haste and ha