man. But, gentlemen" (Mr. Dyebright's voice at once deepened and
faltered), "there is a duty, a painful duty, we owe to our country; and
never, in the long course of my professional experience, do I remember an
instance in which it was more called forth than in the present. Mercy,
gentlemen, is dear, very dear to us all; but it is the deadliest injury
we can inflict on mankind when it is bought at the expense of justice."

The learned gentleman then, after a few further prefatory observations,
proceeded to state how, on the night of ------- last, Lord Mauleverer was
stopped and robbed by three men masked, of a sum of money amounting to
above L350, a diamond snuff-box, rings, watch, and a case of most
valuable jewels,--how Lord Mauleverer, in endeavouring to defend himself,
had passed a bullet through the clothes of one of the robbers,--how it
would be proved that the garments of the prisoner, found in a cave in
Oxfordshire, and positively sworn to by a witness he should produce,
exhibited a rent similar to such a one as a bullet would produce,--how,
moreover, it would be positively sworn to by the same witness, that the
prisoner Lovett had come to the cavern with two accomplices not since
taken up, since their rescue by the prisoner, and boasted of the robbery
he had just committed; that in the clothes and sleeping apartment of the
robber the articles stolen from Lord Mauleverer were found; and that the
purse containing the notes for L300, the only thing the prisoner could
probably have obtained time to carry off with him, on the morning on
which the cave was entered by the policemen, was found on his person on
the day on which be had attempted the rescue of his comrades, and had
been apprehended in that attempt. He stated, moreover, that the dress
found in the cavern, and sworn to by one witness he should produce as
belonging to the prisoner, answered exactly to the description of the
clothes worn by the principal robber, and sworn to by Lord Mauleverer,
his servant, and the postilions. In like manner the colour of one of the