Henry Adolphus now came into the grounds and informed his young mistress that the earl wished to speak to her and Miss Jamblin.
Both young ladies hastened into the hall.
CHAPTER LXX.
THE TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF THE LARCHGROVE-LANE MURDERER—THE PLEA OF WITCHCRAFT.
The day at length arrived upon which Giles Chudley was to be tried, and there were many who believed he would get off. The court was crowded to excess, and when the prisoner entered the dock those who had known him in an earlier day were astounded at the miserable appearance he presented.
His features were lined, thin, and haggard, and he was but a shadow of his former self. Nevertheless, he strove to bear up bravely under the terrible ordeal.
To use a common but expressive phrase, “you might have heard a pin drop” when the counsel for the prosecution rose to open the case.
He did so in a fair, impartial, and masterly manner, neither stepping to the right nor the left, to dwell unnecessarily on the leading facts, either for or against the prisoner.
Whatever opinion we may form of wrangling attorneys, third orand fourth-rate barristers, who, in many cases, are so particularly pertinacious and obtrusive in inquiries at our police-courts, there can be but one in respect to a leading counsel, whose business it is to conduct the prosecution, or who is retained for the defence upon the trial of a prisoner for a capital offence. The arguments on both sides are pretty generally fine specimens of calm and subtle reasoning of cultivated intellects.
And we have no reason to complain of the judges of our land. If there is one thing Englishmen have to be proud of, it is the wisdom and honesty of their judges.