ould be sacrificed for such a monster as I
believe that man to be!"

To all these passionate expostulations the attorney could only reply
that vague suspicions were not judicial proofs; and that if Mr.
Frederick Everett would persist in his obstinate reserve, a fatal result
was inevitable. But Mr. Sharpe readily consented to gratify the wishes
of Mr. Carrington and his daughter on one point: he returned the money,
not a very large sum, which Captain Everett had sent him, and agreed
that Mr. Carrington should supply the funds necessary for the defence of
the prisoner.

Our consultation the next day at Mr. Sharpe's was a sad and hopeless one.
Nowhere did a gleam of cheerful light break in. The case was
overwhelmingly complete against the prisoner. The vague suspicions we
entertained pointed to a crime so monstrous, so incredible, that we felt
it could not be so much as hinted at upon such, legally considered,
slight grounds. The prisoner was said to be an eloquent speaker, and I
undertook to draw up the outline of a defence, impugning, with all the
dialectic skill I was master of, the conclusiveness of the evidence for
the crown. To this, and a host of testimony to character which we
proposed to call, rested our faint hopes of "a good deliverance!"

Business was over, and we were taking a glass of wine with Mr. Sharpe,
when his chief clerk entered to say that Sergeant Edwards, an old
soldier--who had spoken to them some time before relative to a large
claim which he asserted he had against Captain Everett, arising out of a
legacy bequeathed to him in India, and the best mode of assuring its
payment by an annuity, as proposed by the captain--had now called to say
that the terms were at last finally arranged, and that he wished to know
when Mr. Sharpe would be at leisure to draw up the bond. "He need not
fear for his money!" exclaimed Sharpe tartly, "the captain will, I fear,
be rich enough before another week has passed over our heads. Tell him to
call to-morrow evening; I will see him after I return from court." A few
minutes afterwards, I and Mr. Kingston took our leave.

The Crown Court was thronged to suffocation on the following morning,
and the excitement of the auditory appeared to be of the intensest kind.
Miss Carrington, closely veiled, sat beside her father on one of the
side-benches. A true bill against the prisoner had been found on the
previous afternoon; and the trial, it had been arranged, to suit the
c