on the bare facts that the glass of the broken window had been found outside, instead of within; that no other mark of foot or hand had been made or left by the supposititious burglars; whereas a brace of revolvers had been discovered in the dead man’s bureau, both loaded with such bullets as the one which had caused his death, while one of them had clearly been discharged since the last cleaning.  The discovery of the missing watch and chain, in the very chimney of the same room, was a piece of ideal evidence of the confirmatory kind.  But it was not the point that made an impression on the man with the white hair; it did not increase his attention, for that would have been impossible; he was perhaps the one spectator who was not, if only for the moment, perceptibly thrilled.

Thrilling also was the earlier evidence, furnished by maid-servants and police constables in pairs; but here there was no surprise.  The maids were examined not only as to what they had seen and heard on the night of the murder—­and they seemed to have heard everything except the fatal shot—­but upon the previous relations of their master and mistress—­of which they showed an equally extensive knowledge.  The constables were perforce confined to their own discoveries and observations when the maids had called them in.  But all four witnesses spoke to the prisoner’s behavior when shown the dead body of her husband, and there was the utmost unanimity in their several tales.  The prisoner had exhibited little or no surprise; it was several minutes before she had uttered a syllable; and then her first words had been to point out that burglars alone could have committed the murder.

In cross-examination the senior counsel for the defence thus early showed his hand; and it was not a strong one to those who knew the game.  A Queen’s Counsel, like the leader for the Crown, this was an altogether different type of lawyer; a younger man, with a more engaging manner; a more brilliant man, who sought with doubtful wisdom to blind the jury with his brilliance.  His method was no innovation at the Old Bailey; it was to hold up every witness in turn to the derision and contempt of the jury and the court.  So both the maids were reduced to tears, and each policeman cleverly insulted as such.  But the testimony of all four remained unshaken; and the judge himself soothed the young women’s feelings with a fatherly word, while wigs were shaken in the well of the court.  That was no road to the soft side of a decent, conscientious, hard-headed jury, of much the same class as these witnesses themselves; even the actors and authors had a sound opinion on the point, without waiting to hear one from the professional gentlemen in the well.  But the man in front with the very white hair—­the man who was always watching the prisoner at the bar—­there was about as much expression of opinion upon his firm, bare face as might be seen through the sable thickness of her widow’s veil.