shot) the unmistakable original of the deed in question. I need
not tell you that I mean James Stewart."

"And I can just say plainly that the innocence of Alan and of James
is what I am here to declare in private to your lordship, and what
I am prepared to establish at the trial by my testimony," said I.

"To which I can only answer by an equal plainness, Mr. Balfour,"
said he, "that (in that case) your testimony will not be called by
me, and I desire you to withhold it altogether."

"You are at the head of Justice in this country," I cried, "and you
propose to me a crime!"

"I am a man nursing with both hands the interests of this country,"
he replied, "and I press on you a political necessity. Patriotism
is not always moral in the formal sense. You might be glad of it,
I think: it is your own protection; the facts are heavy against
you; and if I am still trying to except you from a very dangerous
place, it is in part of course because I am not insensible to your
honesty in coming here; in part because of Pilrig's letter; but in
part, and in chief part, because I regard in this matter my
political duty first and my judicial duty only second. For the
same reason--I repeat it to you in the same frank words--I do not
want your testimony."

"I desire not to be thought to make a repartee, when I express only
the plain sense of our position," said I. "But if your lordship
has no need of my testimony, I believe the other side would be
extremely blythe to get it."