By the end of September it had come to be pretty well understood that
Sam Brattle must be allowed to go out of prison, unless something
in the shape of fresh evidence should be brought up on the next
Tuesday. There had arisen a very strong feeling in the county on
the subject;--a Brattle feeling, and an anti-Brattle feeling. It
might have been called a Bullhampton feeling and an anti-Bullhampton
feeling, were it not that the biggest man concerned in Bullhampton,
with certain of his hangers-on and dependents, were very clearly of
opinion that Sam Brattle had committed the murder, and that he should
be kept in prison till the period for hanging him might come round.
This very big person was the Marquis of Trowbridge, under whom poor
Farmer Trumbull had held his land, and who now seemed to think that
a murder committed on one of his tenants was almost as bad as insult
to himself. He felt personally angry with Bullhampton, had ideas
of stopping his charities to the parish, and did resolve, then and
there, that he would have nothing to do with a subscription for the
repair of the church, at any rate for the next three years. In making
up his mind on which subject he was, perhaps, a little influenced by
the opinions and narratives of Mr. Puddleham, the Methodist minister
in the village.

It was not only that Mr. Trumbull had been murdered. So great and
wise a man as Lord Trowbridge would, no doubt, know very well, that
in a free country, such as England, a man could not be specially
protected from the hands of murderers, or others, by the fact of
his being the tenant, or dependent,--by his being in some sort
the possession of a great nobleman. The Marquis's people were all
expected to vote for his candidates, and would soon have ceased to be
the Marquis's people had they failed to do so. They were constrained,
also in many respects, by the terms of their very short leases. They
could not kill a head of game on their farms. They could not sell
their own hay off the land, nor, indeed, any produce other than their
corn or cattle. They were compelled to crop their land in certain
rotation; and could take no other lands than those held under the
Marquis without his leave. In return for all this, they became the
Marquis's people. Each tenant shook hands with the Marquis perhaps
once in three years; and twice a year was allowed to get drunk at the
Marquis's expense--if such was his taste--provided that he had paid
his rent. If t