ccompanies after-dinner discussions. But as to the exact
words--"

"It is the exact words I want; it is the exact words I insist upon, sir.
They were used by yourself, and drew down rounds of applause. You were
eloquent and successful."

"I am really unable, at this distance of time, to recollect a word or a
phrase that might have fallen from me in the heat of the moment."

"This speech of yours was made about the middle of the evening?"

"I believe it was."

"And you afterwards sat a considerable time and drank freely?"

"Yes."

"And although your recollection of what passed before that is so obscure
and inaccurate, you perfectly remember everything that took place when
standing on the balcony two hours later, and can swear to the very tone
of a voice that uttered but three words: 'That is a lie, sir!'"

"Prisoner at the bar, conduct yourself with the respect due to the court
and to the witness under its protection," interposed the judge, with
severity.

"You mistake me, my Lord," said Curtis, in a voice of affected
deprecation. "The words I spoke were not used as commenting on the
witness or his veracity. They were simply those to which he swore, those
which he heard once, and, although after a five hours' debauch, remained
fast graven on his memory, along with the very manner of him who uttered
them. I have nothing more to ask him. He may go down--down!" repeated
he, solemnly; "if there be yet anything lower that he can descend to!"

Once more did the judge admonish the prisoner as to his conduct, and
feelingly pointed out to him the serious injury he was inflicting upon
his own case by this rash and intemperate course of proceeding; but
Curtis smiled half contemptuously at the correction, and folded his arms
with an air of dogged resignation.

It is rarely possible, from merely reading the published proceedings of
a trial, to apportion the due degree of weight which the testimony of
the several witnesses imposes, or to estimate that force which manner
and conduct supply to the evidence when orally delivered. In the
present case, the guilt of the accused man rested on the very vaguest
circumstances, not one of which but could be easily and satisfactorily
accounted for on other grounds. He admitted that he had passed through
Stephen's Green on the night in question, and that possibly the tracks
imputed to him were actually his own; but as to the reasons for his
abrupt departure from town, or the secrecy w