jury, I return from these conjectures to
the indisputable facts of my defence.

"Mr. Gaunt may be alive, or he may be dead. He was certainly alive on
the 15th of October, and it lies on the crown to prove him dead, and not
on me to prove him alive. But as for the body that forms the subject of
this indictment, it is the body of Thomas Leicester, who was seen on the
16th of October, at one in the morning, drunk and staggering, and making
for Hernshaw Bridge, which leads to his mother's house; and on all his
former visits to Hernshaw Castle he went on to his mother's, as I shall
prove. This time, he never reached her, as I shall prove; but on his way
to her did meet his death, by the will of God, and no fault of man or
woman, in Hernshaw Mere.

"Call Sarah Leicester."

_Judge._ I think you say you have several witnesses.

_Prisoner._ More than twenty, my lord.

_Judge._ We cannot possibly dispose of them this evening. We will, hear
your evidence to-morrow. Prisoner, this will enable you to consult with
your legal advisers, and let me urge upon you to prove, if you can, that
Mr. Gaunt has a sufficient motive for hiding and not answering Mr.
Atkins's invitation to inherit a large estate. Some such proof as this
is necessary to complete your defence; and I am sorry to see you have
made no mention of it in your address, which was otherwise able.

_Prisoner._ My lord, I think I can prove my own innocence without
casting a slur upon my husband.

_Judge._ You _think_? when your life is at stake. Be not so mad as to
leave so large a hole in your defence, if you can mend it. Take advice.

He said this very solemnly; then rose and left the court.

Mrs. Gaunt was conveyed back to prison, and there was soon prostrated by
the depression that follows an unnatural excitement.

Mr. Houseman found her on a sofa, pale and dejected, and clasping the
jailer's wife convulsively, who applied hartshorn to her nostrils.

He proved but a Job's comforter. Her defence, creditable as it was to a
novice, seemed wordy and weak to him, a lawyer; and he was horrified at
the admissions she had made. In her place he would have admitted nothing
he could not thoroughly explain.

He came to insist on a change of tactics.

When he saw her sad condition, he tried to begin by consoling and
encouraging her. But his own serious misgivings unfitted him for this
task, and very soon, notwithstanding the state she was in, he was almost
scolding her for