minal court.

CHAPTER XV.

"Oh, what a rash and bloody deed is this!"

_Hamlet._

"Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye"

_Macbeth._

The Court had been opened, and was crowded with lawyers, petit
jurors, witnesses, and excited spectators. A criminal trial of
such interest as the present one had not occurred there for years;
and the business in the Civil Courts had virtually been adjourned,
so great was the determination of the pleaders therein to be present,
and witness the conducting of a case so calculated to call forth
the powers of the renowned and venerable advocate. All conspired
to show that an extraordinary scene was to be enacted there that
day. The Judge was more than usually grave, attentive and deliberate;
the Crown Prosecutor wary, and complete in his preparations; the
legal, technical, and clerical grounds of exception and demur,
before the Crown was allowed to take up the burden of proof, were
entered and explored by the advocate, as one who reconnoitres before
committing his feet to dark and dangerous precincts, where any one
of his advancing steps may prove to be fatal.

And now the case had been laid before the jury, and the witnesses
for the prosecution, each as he testified touching the fearful
crime laid to the charge of the prisoner at the bar, were being
subjected to the terrible ordeal of a cross-examination by the
advocate; who all eye all ear appeared, as in his earlier days;
quick to detect, prompt to demand, stern to insist, at watch and
ward at every point; so that his client seemed to have found in
him an irresistible champion, and the crowd, to all of whom he was
familiar, considered his success as certain, just as the veteran
soldiery anticipate a triumph from the General, who has so often
led them to victory that they deem him to have become invincible.
But to the thoughtful and more observant, at times he showed signs
of preoccupation, strangely at variance with his present undoubted
supremely master mood; and as the trial proceeded these fits of
wandering from the point increased in duration and intensity. An
anxious expression settled on his countenance; his usually energetic
but measured movements when he was thus engaged became irregular
and nervous; and he frequently cast glances towards the entrance,
as if expecting the arrival of some one; and twice in the midst of
withering cross-examinations, stopped short at the sight of
individuals elbowing th