she had herself been upon the stage, if only for a fortnight. The Saturday evening papers had given the public and society a taste for the Sunday journals, which kept the hot panting machinery in Fleet Street and the Strand going all day; and on this summer Monday morning, when it was delightful to stroll into Covent Garden and buy a rose for your coat, London was on the tiptoe of expectation.

It was half-past twelve, and there was no appearance of Lady St. Barnard or her husband. The prisoner stood at the bar; the magistrate sat on the bench reading the Times; Mr. Cuffing was calmly looking up at the ceiling with an expression of affected innocence upon his fox-like face; Mr. Holland was examining some letters which he was about to put in as evidence; the newspaper reporters were chatting and drawing caricatures of Mr. Cuffing and his bag; there was a buzz of impatience among the spectators. When was the play going to begin? How long were they to wait for the interesting victim? She was really treating them very badly. It fell upon some of them as a cruel disappointment, the very thought that she might be ill and unable to appear, or that she might at least say so. It was too bad. Here were the thumbscrew and rack all ready, the executioners at their post, it was a bright pleasant day, and were they to be done out of the show? The bare suggestion was misery to the majority of the crowd. Presently the magistrate, having

finished the last leader in the Times, looked up and asked for whom the Court was waiting.

Mr. Holland: For Lady St. Barnard.

The Magistrate: Is her ladyship ill? Do you expect her soon? Mr. Holland: I am not aware that she is unable to appear. expected to find her ladyship in court.

I

The Magistrate: Would it not be well to send a messenger to the Westminster Palace Hotel?

Mr. Holland: Possibly her ladyship went to Grassnook on Saturday; I will immediately send and inquire.

Mr. Holland's clerk left the court at once, with instructions to take a hansom and drive quickly to the hotel.

Ten minutes elapsed, a quarter of an hour, half an hour, and the audience, who had come very early to the court in order that they might secure good places, grew positively troublesome. They were very angry; so much so that the magistrate in his quiet bland way said if any ladies or gentlemen in court had other engagements during the morning and desired to keep them he would dispense with their attendance. This quieted the aristocratic and plebeian crowd for the time being.

When Mr. Holland's clerk returned he was eagerly welcomed. After he had conferred with his chief, Mr. Holland rose and said Lord St. Barnard was on his way to the court.

"Lord St. Barnard ?" repeated the magistrate, inquiringly.

"Yes, your Worship," said the counsel.

Mr. Cuffing looked round the court with an air of conscious victory. He felt that there was a serious hitch somewhere; he interpreted it in his own favour; though he was at a loss to understand how the point of it lay. He got up and spoke to the prisoner, who looked thin and worn.

"There is something wrong," he said in a whisper. "What will you do if I get you out this morning?"

"Anything you tell me to do," said Ransford. "Get me out of this; it will kill me; I'm sinking fast."

Mr. Cuffing thereupon addressed the Bench: I do not complain of this delay, your Worship; but the prisoner is far from well; may he be accommodated with a seat?

All eyes were immediately turned upon the prisoner, who held his head down and fidgeted nervously with his neck-tie.

The Magistrate: Certainly; for the present, at all events. Officer, give the prisoner a chair.

Just as Ransford had seated himself Lord St. Barnard entered the court. He bowed to the Bench and sat down beside his counsel, with whom he at once commenced a serious conference. "I have been to our lawyers," he said; "they would have accompanied me, but I thought the less display in the business the better. You must apply for an adjournment for a week." "Why?" asked the counsel; "on what grounds?" "Lady St. Barnard's indisposition; she cannot come." "Pray, tell me what has transpired, and leave the matter to my discretion," said Mr. Holland. "Lady St. Barnard has gone away," said his lordship; "she has left a letter of explanation behind her. I fear the trial and her weak state of health have affected her mind. Get an adjournment--that is all." Upon this Mr. Holland rose to his feet amidst a murmur of excitement.

Mr. Holland: Your Worship, I regret to say that Lady St. Barnard has not recovered from the attack of illness which prostrated her on Saturday. She has made every effort to be present. Your Worship could see that she was suffering greatly when she entered the court on Saturday morning. I shall ask the Bench to adjourn the case for a week at least, when I hope Lady St. Barnard will be sufficiently recovered to be present. (Murmurs of disapprobation.) Mr. Cuffing Your Worship, I object most emphatically to an

adjournment. I do not for a moment desire that Lady St. Barnard should come here if she is ill. Already I feel that it has been my most disagreeable duty to give this lady some mental pain, and I would not for the world run the risk of retarding her recovery from this sudden illness by asking for her reattendance here a moment earlier than is convenient or desirable to her. But, sir, I contend that the case may fairly proceed without her. I had only a few more questions to put. It was my intention to finish on Saturday, and with your Worship's permission, I will be content to have Lady St. Barnard recalled at the close of the other evidence. At the same time I think Mr. Holland should give us medical testimony as to the lady's illness. Mr. Holland: I cannot accede to Mr. Cuffing's proposition; neither do I think it necessary to call medical evidence in support of my application.

Mr. Cuffing: Oh, indeed. I do not dispute your statement that Lady St. Barnard is ill; but I see no reason at least why you should not favour the Court with a medical certificate to that effect.

Mr. Holland: It is not necessary.

Mr. Cuffing: Perhaps not; you might have done it nevertheless. Having wasted so much time this morning it would have been a graceful act, to say the least.

Mr. Holland: The point is not worth discussing.

Mr. Cuffing, who had drawn his own inferences from the frequent consultations between Lord St. Barnard and his counsel, looked calmly at both of them and said significantly: Very well; I have my own ideas about it; but we will go on. In order that no obstacle may be put in the way of the prosecution, I will place in the hands of the Court the questions I intend to ask, so that they may not be affected by the evidence which has yet to come.

The Magistrate: That would be a very fair course, Mr. Cuffing. (Applause.)

Mr. Holland: Possibly, but I could not accept it, and I must respectfully submit that the application I have made is a most reasonable one.

Mr. Cuffing: If during the adjournment you liberate my client, yes; I will offer no objection, providing that should you not be prepared to go on in a week the case be dismissed.

Mr. Holland: We have no objection to the prisoner's liberation on substantial bail.

The Magistrate: Why not go on and call your other witnesses, Mr. Holland? How many have you? At the outset I understood that Lady St. Barnard would be your last witness.

Mr. Holland: That was our intention, but we had no idea the prisoner would extend his crime by fresh complications of libel and slander.

Mr. Cuffing Your Worship, I appeal to you against this condemnation of a prisoner before he is even committed by a magistrate. By the law of England every man who is charged is innocent until he is proved to be guilty-(applause)—and I protest against the arrogant and offensive tone of my learned friend the counsel for the complainant.

The Magistrate: Why do you object to go on with the case, postponing the further cross-examination of Lady St. Barnard?

Mr. Holland conferred with Lord St. Barnard and also with his clerk.

The Magistrate: It might be that sufficient could be done with the other evidence to warrant the case going before another tribunal; it is impossible to say until we hear some of the evidence which Mr. Cuffing is pledged to call in justification of his cross-examination. Mr. Cuffing Your Worship, I have twenty witnesses.

The wily lawyer could see by the manner of Lord St. Barnard that something unusual had happened; his instinct told him that he had hit Clytie down on Saturday almost to the point of madness; it might be that he had utterly broken her down. He acted upon his instinct. The better thing to do was to fight, to affect much virtue and determination, to be bold as heretofore, to demand justice for his client.

Mr. Holland: I do not feel called upon to enter into further explanations, your Worship. Lady St. Barnard is too ill to be present, and I ask that the further hearing of the case may be adjourned for a week.

Mr. Cuffing And I most emphatically protest. If Lady St. Barnard were here I should only ask her three or four more questions.

While Mr. Cuffing was speaking, Mr. Holland was talking quietly to Lord St. Barnard, and reading a letter which his lordship placed in his hands. It was from Clytie to her husband, written the day before.

The Magistrate: If I adjourn, the prisoner must be liberated upon reasonable bail.

Mr. Cuffing Certainly, your Worship. He has already suffered for a crime which I shall prove he has not committed, and it would be hard indeed if his incarceration were to continue an hour under present circumstances. Let my learned friend go on with his case. If Lady St. Barnard is too ill to be here-if the conclusion of my

cross-examination is a difficulty, sir, I will say it is now concluded. (Sensation.) I will not ask her another question; I dispense with her attendance. I am here to clear the character of my client, not to torture a woman. (Applause.) I am here to rescue my client from a conspiracy to imprison him that he may not save the Court of England and society from a stain which

Mr. Holland: Sir, I protest

Mr. Cuffing: I will not be put down. I stand here for justice, and I will have it. It may seem unmanly for my client to have made that statutory declaration, but I shall show that he was actuated by true manly English motives. He was slighted, he was persecuted; he was deprived of his estate, of his birthright. No, your Worship, I will speak. The time has arrived when I should hurl back the foul aspersions that have been heaped upon a harassed and broken man.

The Magistrate: You will have an opportunity, in due course, of saying all that you have to say, and I do not think that time has yet arrived.

Mr. Cuffing: With all respect and deference, I contend that the time has arrived. I am speaking, sir, to this question of adjournment, which I will oppose with all the eloquence of which I am capable, unless my client be liberated on his own bail. And further, sir, I call upon Lord St. Barnard to be bound over to prosecute. We will have this story out. Men are not to be arrested and locked up to please a lord, or to satisfy the whim of a lady. I challenge the prosecution to go on.

Mr. Holland: The prosecution asks for an adjournment, not only on account of the illness of Lady St. Barnard, but from circumstances which will be fully explained at the proper time. I will not weary the Court by replying to the declaration of the solicitor for the prisoner. I am sure the Bench will accept it for what it is worth, and no more. This prosecution is as much in the interest of society as it is in the interest of Lord St. Barnard.

Mr. Cuffing: Then go on with it.

Mr. Holland: Sir, I request that you will not interrupt me.

The Magistrate: I do not think it is necessary that this matter should be further discussed. I am bound to say that Mr. Cuffing has made a proposition of which I entirely approve. He is content to say that the cross-examination of Lady St. Barnard shall be considered at an end; and he asks that the prosecution shall call their other witnesses. If the prosecution are not prepared to do so, I do not see how I can refuse to discharge the prisoner upon moderate bail.