tion, whereupon Mr. Carson rose to make the opening speech for
the defence. I was shivering with apprehension.

He began by admitting the grave responsibility resting on Lord
Queensberry, who accepted it to the fullest. Lord Queensberry was
justified in doing all he could do to cut short an acquaintance which
must be disastrous to his son. Mr. Carson wished to draw the attention
of the jury to the fact that all these men with whom Mr. Wilde went
about were discharged servants and grooms, and that they were all
about the same age. He asked the jury also to note that Taylor, who
was the pivot of the whole case, had not yet been put in the box. Why
not? He pointed out to the jury that the very same idea that was set
forth in "The Priest and the Acolyte" was contained in Oscar Wilde's
letters to Lord Alfred Douglas, and the same idea was to be found in
Lord Alfred Douglas' poem, "The Two Loves,"[15] which was published in
_The Chameleon_. He went on to say that when, in the story of "The
Priest and the Acolyte," the boy was discovered in the priest's
bed,[16] the priest made the same defence as Mr. Wilde had made, that
the world does not understand the beauty of this love. The same idea
was found again in "Dorian Gray," and he read two or three passages
from the book in support of this statement. Mr. Wilde had described
his letter to Lord Alfred Douglas as a prose sonnet. He would read it
again to the court, and he read both the letters. "Mr. Wilde says they
are beautiful," he went on, "I call them an abominable piece of
disgusting immorality."

At this the Judge again shuffled his papers together and whispered in
a quiet voice that the court would sit on the morrow, and left the
room.

The honours of the day had all been with Mr. Carson. Oscar left the
box in a depressed way. One or two friends came towards him, but the
majority held aloof, and in almost unbroken silence everyone slipped
out of the court. Strange to say in my mind there was just a ray of
hope. Mr. Carson was still laying stress on the article in _The
Chameleon_ and scattered passages in "Dorian Gray"; on Oscar's letters
to Lord Alfred Douglas and Lord Alfred Douglas' poems in _The
Chameleon_. He must see, I thought, that all this was extremely weak.
Sir Edward Clarke could be trusted to tear all such arguments, founded
on literary work, to shreds. There was room for more than reasonable
doubt about all such things.

Why had not Mr. Carson put some of