All this was very clever, not to say facetious, on the part of the
learned Judge; but as I had yet to address the jury, I was resolved to
take the other view of the effect of the Vicar's sermons, and I did
so. I worked Maule's quarry, I think, with some little effect: for
after all his most strenuous exertions to secure a conviction, the
jury believed, probably, that no man's mind could stand the ordeal;
and, further, that any doubt they might have, after seeing the two
children of the prisoner in court dressed in little black frocks, and
sobbing bitterly while I was addressing them, would be given in the
prisoner's favour, which it was.

This incident in my life is not finished. On the same evening I was
dining at the country house of a Mr. Hardcastle, and near me sat an
old inhabitant of the village where the tragedy had been committed.

"You made a touching speech, Mr. Hawkins," said the old inhabitant.

"Well," I answered, "it was the best thing I could do in the
circumstances."

"Yes," he said; "but I don't think you would have painted the little
home in such glowing colours if you had seen what I saw last week when
I was driving past the cottage. No, no; I think you'd have toned down
a bit."

"What was it?" I asked.

"Why," said the old inhabitant, "the little children who sobbed so
violently in court this morning, and to whom you made such pathetic