_one hundred and fifty-six sermons, discourses, and homilies for the
year_." (Then he stared at me, asking with his eyes what I thought of
it.) "These, again, being continued over a space of time, comprising,
as the reverend gentleman tells us, no less than _thirty-four years_,
give us a grand total of _five thousand three hundred and four
sermons, discourses, or homilies_ during this unhappy man's life."

Maule's eyes were now riveted on the clergyman as though he were an
accessory to the murder.

"Five thousand three hundred and four," he repeated, "by the same
person, however respectable and beloved as a pastor he might be, was
what few of us could have gone through unless we were endowed with as
much strength of mind as power of endurance. I was going to ask you,
sir, did the idea ever strike you when you talked of this unhappy
being suddenly leaving your ministrations and turning Sabbath-breaker,
that after thirty-four years he might want a little change? Would
it not be reasonable to suppose that the man might think he had had
enough of it?"

"It might, my lord."

"And would not that in your judgment, instead of showing that he was
insane, prove that he was _a very sensible man_?"

The Vicar did not quite assent to this, and as he would not dissent
from the learned Judge, said nothing.

"And," continued Maule, "that he was perfectly sane, although he
murdered his wife?"