“Against.”

“Against what side?”

“The prisoner’s.”

The Judge, whose eyes had gone in the general direction,

recalled them, leaned back in his seat, and looked steadily at the

man whose life was in his hand, as Mr. Attorney-General rose to

spin the rope, grind the axe, and hammer the nails into the

scaffold.

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Chapter IX

A DISSAPOINTMENT

r.

jM Attorney-General had to inform the jury, that the

prisoner before them, though young in years, was old in

the treasonable practices which claimed the forfeit of

his life. That this correspondence with the public enemy was not a

correspondence of today, or of yesterday, or even of last year, or of

the year before. That, it was certain the prisoner had, for longer

than that, been in the habit of passing and re-passing between

France and England, on secret business of which he could give no

honest account. That, if it were in the nature of traitorous ways to

thrive (which happily it never was), the real wickedness and guilt

of his business might have remained undiscovered. That

Providence, however, had put it into the heart of a person who

was beyond fear and beyond reproach, to ferret out the nature of

the prisoner’s schemes, and, struck with horror, to disclose them

to his Maesty’s Chief Secretary of State and most honourable

Privy Council. That, this patriot would be produced before them.

That, his position and attitude were, on the whole, sublime. That,

he had been the prisoner’s friend, but, at once in an auspicious

and an evil hour detecting his infamy, had resolved to immolate

the traitor he could no longer cherish in his bosom, on the sacred

altar of his country. That, if statues were decreed in Britain, as in

ancient Greece and Rome, to public benefactors, this shining

citizen would assuredly have had one. That, as they were not so

decreed, he probably would not have one. That, Virtue, as had

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been observed by the poets (in many passages which he well knew

the jury would have, word for word, at the tips of their tongues;

whereat the jury’s countenances displayed a guilty consciousness

that they knew nothing about the passages), was in a manner

contagious; more especially the bright virtue known as patriotism,

or love of country. That, the lofty example of this immaculate and

unimpeachable witness for the Crown to refer to whom however

unworthily was an honour, had communicated itself to the

prisoner’s servant, and had engendered in him a holy

determination to examine his master’s table-drawers and pockets,

and secrete his papers. That, he (Mr. Attorney-General) was

prepared to hear some disparagement attempted of this admirable

servant; but that, in a general way, he preferred him to his (Mr.