n who are carrying on the prosecution know their witness, and
don't believe a word of her sickness. Had she the feelings of woman
in her bosom she ought indeed to be sick unto death. But they know
her better, and send down a doctor of their own. You have heard his
evidence,--and yet this wonderful lady is not before us. I say again
that she ought to be here in that dock,--in that dock in spite of her
fortune, in that dock in spite of her title, in that dock in spite of
her castle, her riches, her beauty, and her great relatives. A most
wonderful woman, indeed, is the widow Eustace. It is she whom public
opinion will convict as the guilty one in this marvellous mass of
conspiracy and intrigue. In her absence, and after what she has done
herself, can you convict any man either of stealing or of disposing
of these diamonds?" The vigour, the attitude, and the indignant tone
of the man were more even than his words;--but, nevertheless, the
jury did find both Benjamin and Smiler guilty, and the judge did
sentence them to penal servitude for fifteen years.

And this was the end of the Eustace diamonds as far as anything was
ever known of them in England. Mr. Camperdown altogether failed, even
in his attempt to buy them back at something less than their value,
and was ashamed himself to look at the figures when he found how much
money he had wasted for his clients in their pursuit. In discussing
the matter afterwards with Mr. Dove, he excused himself by asserting
his inability to see so gross a robbery perpetrated by a little minx
under his very eyes without interfering with the plunder. "I knew
what she was," he said, "from the moment of Sir Florian's unfortunate
marriage. He had brought a little harpy into the family, and I was
obliged to declare war against her." Mr. Dove seemed to be of opinion
that the ultimate loss of the diamonds was upon the whole desirable,
as regarded the whole community. "I should like to have had the case
settled as to right of possession," he said, "because there were in
it one or two points of interest. We none of us know, for instance,
what a man can, or what a man cannot, give away by a mere word."

"No such word was ever spoken," said Mr. Camperdown in wrath.

"Such evidence as there is would have gone to show that it had been
spoken. But the very existence of such property so to be disposed of,
or so not to be disposed of, is in itself an evil. Thus, we have had
to fight for six months about