namely, the ninth day of June last past; that
that young person gave him two letters,
one of which, as I am advised, contained the
secret password by which the conspirators
made themselves known to one another.
I shall produce another witness, by the aid
of whose testimony you will trace him from
Nottingham, through a part of the forest,
over Cinder Hill, through the Moor Green
and Selstone to Alfreton (places, no doubt,
gentlemen of the jury, well known to every
one of you), and thence to the scene of the riot.
I must, however, inform you that there was
an interval of ten minutes, during which the
witness I am now alluding to lost sight
of the prisoner: that hiatus will be partly
filled up by the landlord of the Fox at
Alfreton, at whose inn the prisoner drew rein,
and inquired respecting a groom. Thus,
then, gentlemen of the jury, we trace him
to the White Horse at Pentridge, where his
co-conspirators had already assembled. The
defence may probably take advantage of the
mistiness of that evening and night. It may
make much of the fact that the unhappy
persons best able to identify the prisoner at
the bar, are now lying under their respective
sentences, and cannot with propriety be
dragged into court to give evidence. But,
gentlemen, in the face of such convincing
testimony as that which I shall have the
honour of bringing before you; in the face
of the tumultuous transactions at the
Butterley Iron Works; the shooting of the farm
servant at Topham's Close; and the capture
of the prisoner early the next morning,
when he had almost effected his escape;
in the face of such an accumulation of proof,
it will be impossible to dispute the facts of
this distressing case. These will not perhaps
be denied; but 'motives' may be urged
upon you. You may be told that this
misguiding and misguided young gentleman
presented himself amongst the rioters
to warn and to dissuade; that he went to
them in the cause of law and order. But,
men in possession of passwords; men so well
known to a seditious fraternity as to have
cant designations conferred upon them—
the Young Squire, to wit—men actually
caught in the fact of rebellion (which is the
most heinous form of peace-breaking) do
not usually range themselves on the side of
peace-making. Besides, gentlemen of the
jury, motives, whether of the purest or of the
basest kind, must be discarded altogether.
The law says that mere presence at a riot is
participation in it. The prisoner was there:
present with the rebels. That is enough. I
feel most sensibly, gentlemen," continued
Serjeant Moss, with oily solemnity, "the
dreadful position in which you are placed. I
appreciate the awful responsibility which
may demand the condemnation of a fellow-
creature—one of your own order—to the
appalling expiation of the crime of high
treason. But you must not shrink from
that responsibility; this august bench must
not shrink from that responsibility; I, the
humble individual whose painful task it is
now to address you, must not shrink from
that responsibility." The learned serjearit
then sat down, having wiped out, with his
cambric pocket-handkerchief, the unctuous
smile with which his last words to a county
jury were always accompanied.

If Mrs. Tuckey had not given her daughter's
skirt a parting pull, to take a pucker out of
the skirt, as the damsel left her seat to
ascend the witness-box, and if the maiden's
dangling curls—hardly confined by her bonnet
—had not obscured her face whenever
she was asked a question, there would not
have been so much tittering as actually
arose in the court; even although she would
persist in prefacing each answer with " Please,
sir." She felt very unhappy when, after
having told the whole truth to the first
gentleman, the second gentleman—who she
thought would be very kind indeed to her,
as he was on her friend's side—appeared not
to believe one word she had uttered. She
was ready to cry when Counsellor Marsden
asked her, severely, whether she was quite
sure that the gentlemau she gave two of the
letters to, and the prisoner at the bar, was
the same person.

Nothing could be more certain: her answer
was confirmed by the prisoner himself; who,
roused from his callousness to the proceed-
ings, gave her a smile; and it was a smile
of recognition. Mr. Marsden bit his lip, but
went on, after a pause. The prisoner had
arrived on horseback, had he: of what
colour was the horse?

"Please, sir, it was a black horse?"

A black horse. "Well, about the letters?
Why, please sir, she handed over two letters
in the name of Dornley, and one letter in the
name of Nobble.—Would she know Mr.
Nobble again if she saw him? Please, sir,
yes, in a minute.—Could she remember how
Mr. Dornley was dressed ? Please, sir, he
had on a white great coat and a white hat.

A pause. While the witness was "standing
down," the prisoner leant over to
whisper a word into the ear of his counsel,
which sounded like a word of remonstrance;
but his counsel looked towards the door,
and took not the slightest notice of it.

The next witness was a long time in
appearing. He had to be fetched from a hiding-
place somewhere under the building. Why,
the hiss of execration, too spontaneous to be
suppressed, which greeted him when he
answered to the name of Knotliver,
sufficiently explained. Although he squared his
shoulders and looked boldly round the court,
the tight grasp with which he held on to the
rail of the witness-box, and the twitching
of his nether lip, showed that he was not
so much at ease as he wished it to be supposed
he was. He proved, however, what lawyers
call a good witness; for practice had made