atrocious crime. Still, it was an immense relief to have the black shadow
of that bloody charge withdrawn.

There was but one more witness for the prosecution to be examined; that
witness was no less a person than the young Duke of Hereward himself.

He was called to the stand, and sworn.

Every pair of eyes in the court-room availed themselves of the
opportunity afforded by the elevated position of the witness-stand,
to gaze on the man who had so recently been the subject of such a
terrible accusation; and all admired the calmness, self-possession,
and forbearance of his conduct during the fearful ordeal through which
he had just passed.

He simply testified as to the finding of the dead body, the position of
the corpse, the condition of the room, and so forth. He was not subjected
to a cross-examination, but was courteously notified that he was at
liberty to retire.

He resumed his former seat.

The case for the prosecution was closed.

Mr. Kinlock, junior counsel for the prisoner, arose for the defence. He
made a short address to the jury, in which he spoke of the slight grounds
upon which his unhappy client had been charged with an atrocious crime,
and brought to trial for his life. The law demanded a victim for that
heinous crime, which had shocked the whole community from its centre to
its circumference, and his unfortunate client had been selected as a sin
offering. He reminded the jury how the very esteem and confidence of the
master and the fidelity and obedience of the servant had been most
ingeniously turned into strong circumstantial evidence, to fix the
assassination of the master upon the servant. The deceased, had entirely
trusted the prisoner; had given him a pass-key with which he might enter
his chambers at any hour of the day or night; and hence it was argued
that the prisoner, being the only one who had the entree to the
deceased's apartments, must have been the person who admitted the
murderer to his victim. The prisoner had faithfully obeyed his master's
orders for the day, in declining to enter his rooms before his bell
should ring; and thence it was argued that he only delayed to call his
master because he knew that master lay murdered in his room, and he
wished to give the murderers, with whom he was said to be confederated,
time to make good their escape. He was sure, he said, that a just and
intelligent jury must at once perceive the cruel injustice of such
far-fetched inferences. In a