It was growing dark when the evidence (for so it was called) was done;
and the end was drawing near; and the candles which had been put out
long ago were lighted again by an usher, who came in with a taper when
the Lord Chief Justice called for lights. But the candles burned very
badly, by reason of the closeness of the Court in which so many persons
had been gathered for so long; and shed but a poor illumination. My eyes
were weary too with staring upon the people--now upon the monstrous face
of Oates, that was like a nightmare for terror, now upon the prisoners
so patient in the dock, and now upon my Lords on their high seats
beneath the state, and especially upon that hard and bitter face of
Chief Justice Scroggs who, if ever a man murdered innocent folk, was
murdering to-day the three men before him, by the direction which he
gave to the jury, and the manner he conducted the case. I could, by now,
see the faces only one by one, as each leant into the light of the
candles; and it appeared to me, again and again, that these were mocking
demons and not men, and Oates the lord of them all and of hell itself
from which they all came, and to which they must return. I closed my
eyes sometimes, both to rest them, and that I might pray for bare
justice to be done; but my prayers were to me like the lifting of
weights too great for my strength. One hope only remained to me, and
that lay in His Majesty; for, although he had permitted the deaths of
Coleman and of Stayley, these might indeed have appeared guilty to one
who knew nothing of them; but I could not find it in my heart to believe
that he would suffer these Jesuits to die, of whom he had sworn to me
that not a hair of their heads should be injured. I had determined, too,
to go to His Majesty, so soon as the trial was done, and the verdict
given as I knew it would be, and hear from his own lips that he would
keep his word, at whatever cost to himself.