, before it permits an
accused person to escape the responsibility of his acts. Such a defence
usually resolves itself into a battle between medical experts and the
counsel engaged, the Crown endeavouring to upset the medical evidence
for the defence with medical evidence in rebuttal.

The lawyers in court settled back with a new enjoyment at the prospect
of the legal and medical hair-splitting and quibbling which invariably
accompanies an encounter of this kind, and Crown Counsel and solicitors
displayed sudden activity. Sir Herbert Templewood and Mr. Braecroft held
a whispered consultation, and then Mr. Braecroft passed a note to the
Crown Solicitor, who hurried from the court and presently returned
carrying a formidable pile of dusty volumes, which he placed in front of
junior counsel. The most uninterested person in court seemed the man in
the dock, who sat looking into a vacancy with a bored expression on his
handsome face, as if he were indifferent to the fight on which his
existence depended.

The next witness was Miss Constance Willoughby, who gave her testimony
in low clear tones, and with perfect self-possession. It was observed by
the feminine element in court that she did not look at her lover in the
dock, but kept her eyes steadily fixed on Mr. Middleheath. Her story was
a straightforward and simple one. She had become engaged to Mr. Penreath
shortly before the war, and had seen him several times since he was
invalided out of the Army. The last occasion was a month ago, when he
called at her aunt's house at Lancaster Gate. She had noticed a great
change in him since his return from the front. He was moody and
depressed. She did not question him about his illness, as she thought he
was out of spirits because he had been invalided out of the Army, and
did not want to talk about it. He told her he intended to go away for a
change until he got right again--he had not made up his mind where, but
he thought somewhere on the East Coast, where it was cool and bracing,
would suit him best--and he would write to her as soon as he got
settled anywhere. She did not see him again, and did not hear from him
or know anything of his movements till she read his description in a
London paper as that of a man wanted by the Norfolk police for murder.
Her aunt, who showed her the paper, communicated with the Penreaths'
solicitor, Mr. Oakham. The following day she and her aunt were taken to
Heathfield and identified the accused