as not transpired
in the course of this trial, and if so, whether the prisoner, or that
other person, or both of them, did or did not obtain access to the
house by means of that nature.'

Collapse of jury. Dashed in a moment from their height of fancied
security, they lie helpless at the bottom of the abyss.

The summing-up was nearly over. Tressamer had begun to hope the judge
had forgotten him. But Sir Daniel had reserved his melodramatic
effects to the last, as all orators know they ought to do.

'And now a few words as to the unusual, I may say, I hope, the
extraordinary, though unhappily not quite unprecedented, line of
defence which has been adopted in this case. The prisoner's counsel
has not contented himself with merely defending the prisoner; he has
gone far beyond that, far beyond the necessities, so far as they
present themselves to my mind, of his position, and has distinctly and
deliberately brought an accusation against one who is not on trial
before you, and has, therefore, no means of rebutting the attack. For
such a course there is, in my opinion, not a shadow of excuse. I have
listened with great patience to the evidence in this case from the
beginning to the end, and I have not detected anywhere anything that
casts one particle of suspicion upon Mr. Lewis.

'He was attacked for having come so promptly to visit his relative on
his return. But his explanation was straightforward, and such as to
commend itself to everyone who heard him. I shall not trouble you
with any defence of Mr. Lewis, however'--(gratitude of the whole
court)--'but I must condemn in the gravest and strongest manner the
way in which Mr. Tressamer has abused his privilege as an advocate to
spring a charge of this deadly character upon one who is, so far as
we can see, a perfectly innocent man. If this sort of thing is to be
indulged in, the honour of the Bar--that noble profession to which it
is my glory to have belonged--will be dragged in the dust, and its
formidable immunities will have to be sharply and summarily curtailed.
It has been well said that no assassin is so terrible to the community
as the assassin of reputations, and in my opinion the man who is
capable of taking advantage of a technical immunity from punishment to
lie in wait for and destroy in cold blood the whole character and
career of another, reveals a blackness of disposition which fits him
for the commission of any crime, aye, though it were as heinous as