elief in the shape of the first subject of merriment which may
present itself. A severe rebuke from the Bench restored order among
the audience. The Lord Justice Clerk declared that he would "clear the
Court" if the interruption to the proceedings were renewed.

During the silence which followed this announcement the new witness
appeared.

Gliding, self-propelled in his chair on wheels, through the opening made
for him among the crowd, a strange and startling creature--literally the
half of a man--revealed himself to the general view. A coverlet which
had been thrown over his chair had fallen off during his progress
through the throng. The loss of it exposed to the public curiosity
the head, the arms, and the trunk of a living human being: absolutely
deprived of the lower limbs. To make this deformity all the more
striking and all the more terrible, the victim of it was--as to his face
and his body--an unusually handsome and an unusually well-made man. His
long silky hair, of a bright and beautiful chestnut color, fell over
shoulders that were the perfection of strength and grace. His face was
bright with vivacity and intelligence. His large clear blue eyes and his
long delicate white hands were like the eyes and hands of a beautiful
woman. He would have looked effeminate but for the manly proportions
of his throat and chest, aided in their effect by his flowing beard and
long mustache, of a lighter chestnut shade than the color of his hair.
Never had a magnificent head and body been more hopelessly ill-bestowed
than in this instance! Never had Nature committed a more careless or a
more cruel mistake than in the making of this man!

He was sworn, seated, of course, in his chair. Having given his name,
he bowed to the Judges and requested their permission to preface his
evidence with a word of explanation.

"People generally laugh when they first hear my strange Christian
name," he said, in a low, clear, resonant voice which penetrated to the
remotest corners of the Court. "I may inform the good people here that
many names, still common among us, have their significations, and that
mine is one of them. 'Alexander,' for instance, means, in the Greek,
'a helper of men.' 'David' means, in Hebrew, 'well-beloved.' 'Francis'
means, in German, 'free.' My name, 'Miserrimus,' means, in Latin, 'most
unhappy.' It was given to me by my father, in allusion to the deformity
which you all see--the deformity with which it was my misf