was taken, and the twelve men filed slowly out.

CHAPTER X.

THE VERDICT.

The secrets of the jury-room are little understood. Doubtless this is
because all the more intellectual classes are exempted, by a beautiful
provision of our law, from serving on juries, and the remainder have
not yet produced a man competent to chronicle his experiences.

The Mynyddshire jurymen were very much like their brethren all over
the country. They had sworn a solemn oath to well and truly try, and
true deliverance make, between our sovereign lady the Queen and the
prisoner at the bar, and they honestly tried to act up to their
obligation.

Mr. Jenkins, the Queen Street stationer, was among them, and his first
words, after the door was closed on them, were:

'Well, I don't know what you think, sir, but I couldn't make out
whether he was for her or against her.'

The person addressed was the foreman, a rich building contractor from
a large seaport at the end of the county. He was a man of judicial
mind, a model foreman, and wisely abstained from committing himself at
this early stage. He turned round and asked his next neighbour, who
happened to be the farmer from near Porthstone, whose remarks to Mr.
Jenkins were given in the fourth chapter:

'How did it strike you, sir?'

'I thought he was against her,' was the answer. 'Didn't you hear him
say, "The prisoner must suffer by that line of defence"? And then he
didn't say nothing about reasonable doubts.'

'No; but the young barrister did--the one that prosecuted,' observed a
tall, thin man, a tailor by trade.

'He's got nothing to do with it,' said the farmer. 'I thought him a
fool all along. I know his whole family, and they're all alike.'

'What a terrible speech Mr. Tressamer made!' ventured a fifth
juryman, a short, stumpy watchmaker from Porthstone itself. 'I believe
he's her lover.'

'What!' cried the foreman, losing his calm demeanour in the presence
of this interesting revelation. 'How d'ye know that?'

'Oh, it was common talk in Porthstone,' was the answer. 'They knew
each other ever since they was children, and he used to come down
every summer and go about with her. That's what made him so fierce
against Mr. Lewis, you may depend.'

'And did you know her?' 'What was she like, really?' 'What do you
think of her?' broke from several voices as the whole jury clustered
round the little man.

But he drew in his horns at once.

'Don't ask me anything,'