He went on: " Gentlemen of the jury, what
I have just stated is no mere assertion. I have
evidence to give that shall bear out every word I
have said. I shall shortly call before you for
examination a witness whom the facts of this
case have only just reached, and who has now
only heard of it, to use the common phrase, by
accident. At the eleventh hour this witness has
come forward in time to save a life which,
perhaps, without his testimony, might have been
sacrificed. He has come forward to testify that
he has for some time past been in the habit of
supplying the deceased lady with laudanum;
that he did so under the impression that she
required it mainly for external use, and that she
was liable to suffering which made its use necessary
to her. She had this poison from him for
the last time on the day before that on which she
expired. The fact that he was ignorant of her
name, and the strange life and habits of this
person, something of which, no doubt, will come
out under examination, have been the causes
which have led to his being thus long in coming
forward with evidence of such extreme
importance, just as it is certain that the fact of his not
having been visited by the agents of the police
when investigating the case, is to be attributed
to the circumstance that he is not, strictly speaking,
a chemist, but a herbalist and seedsman,
while the shop which he keeps is not a
chemist's shop, but such an one as is ordinarily
kept by the members of the trade to which he
belongs. The herbalist's shop has been passed
by, and the herbalist himself overlooked, in the
course of those inquiries to which the case now
before the jury has given rise; and so it has
happened that the person who, of all others, was
alone able to clear up this mystery, has remained,
till the very eleventh hour, altogether ignorant
of how much depended upon evidence which he
alone could give. For it is most certain that
this man has till quite recently known nothing of
the case which the court is now investigating,
and that but for the merest accident, as I have
said, his evidence, of such matchless importance
as it is, might yet never have been brought to
light. As it is, however, and owing, as we
phrase it, to a rare and most happy chance, which
all men who love justice will hail joyfully, this
man is here to give evidence this day—here to
settle a question which, without his testimony,
might have remained, at best, doubtful in men's
eyes, or which at worst might have been wrongly
and falsely decided, leaving in one case a slur upon
a name which should be wholly pure and
untarnished, and in the other condemning to a shameful
death a creature as innocent of the horrible deed
attributed to her as the angels are that have
watched over her in her hour of danger. And
gentlemen of the jury," cried Gilbert in
conclusion, " one thing let me at least entreat of you.
When this man—this witness — shall have spoken,
and when you shall have heard all that he has to
say, be swift in what you have to do, and let your
work be accomplished quickly. His evidence, I
fondly hope and believe, is conclusive in its nature,
and will leave you with little inclination to doubt
or hesitate. Have great consideration, then, for one
who has already suffered, as I devoutly trust that
not one of you will ever suffer, who, born and bred
in a position removed, one would have thought,
from the bare possibility of such an experience as
this, has yet had to pass through an ordeal which
would shake the roughest and most hardened
nature. Be considerate of what she must still
endure while your deliberations last, and end
them, in Heaven's name, as quickly as may
consist with the fulfilment of the sacred duty which
you have pledged yourselves to perform this
day."

Gilbert sat down, and again was heard that
murmur—that deep-drawn breath which seemed
to be released after being held too long. It was
not applause. It was nothing that could be
checked or repressed; but it spoke eloquently
of profoundest interest in what was passing, and
of cordial approbation of what the speaker had
said. As for Gilbert himself, he felt like one
who was living in some strange dream. After
the first minute or two, he had become insensible
to what was going on around him. All nervousness
and diffidence had left him. He saw but
indistinctly the crowd which he was addressing.
He spoke on almost mechanically—spoke because
he must, with no hesitation or doubt as to what
he should say. Such conditions of feeling as
this are not without precedent. In these supreme
moments men have fulfilled their parts, and
known little or nothing of what they have been
doing. It is so in battle, when, in the wild
excitement of a charge, the soldier does not know
that he is wounded. It is so with some
intellectual tasks which men have performed, as it
were, in a trance, half conscious only of what
they did, yet doing it strangely well, and hardly
recognising, when they came to themselves, the
work of their own minds.

The lawyers, too, whispered together over this
speech for the defence. Mr. Craft was there in
court and some of his friends. They were
disposed to take a different view of Gilbert's fitness
for the profession of advocate to that which they
had expressed with so much frankness in Mr.
Lethwaite's chambers. One thing that
astonished them especially, was that Gilbert's accent
had so little, if indeed at all, impaired the effect
of his speech. It had hardly been noticed.
Much of it had worn off as the young barrister
warmed to his work. What remained really
mattered not. There are people, who speak
with a certain difficulty, who seem to impress
what they have to say upon you more strongly
than others, who have the gift of an easy flow
of words. You feel that men belonging to the
first of these classes are never betrayed into
saying things because their tongues have run
away with them; while with regard to those who
come under the second classification, you are
not so sure. There was that in Gilbert
Penmore's delivery which made his listeners wait