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 tes-
tified 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;

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v?