It was “Everyone for himself,” but not “devil take the hindmost”; because belief in the Prince of Darkness, like belief in many other things, had largely been discarded. The signs and the sounds of the times were many and various; but, not in England only--perhaps less in England than abroad--the most arresting was the diapason note of a steady march. The rolling rhythm of a mighty organ; the tramp, tramp, tramp of the many millions, drawing nearer and nearer. CHAPTER II AT THE NEW BAILEY For three days public attention had been riveted on another sensational trial that had packed the New Bailey with an excited audience, and filled the report columns of the London papers. It was alleged that a daring and gigantic fraud had been practised on charitable persons, and, what was worse, not merely on persons, but on personages, highly placed in Church and State. Many distinguished victims had gone into the witness-box, and told their tale; and therein, for the time being, lay the main interest of the trial. Again, ladies of social celebrity, eager for a new sensation, had importuned city officials and the Judge himself for the equivalent of stalls to see the show. The Society journals gushingly described their excellent taste--in the matter of dress. Lord Malvern, the Chief Justice, had come down to try the case, and his counterfeit presentment in various attitudes of wisdom or weariness had figured in the _Daily Graphic_, with those of the prisoners, witnesses, and counsel. In this instance the prisoners themselves were persons of little interest or importance; for it was well understood that they were practically dummies, put forward, and, it was said, well paid for running the risk of capture. There was what the papers call a brilliant array of counsel. For the Crown, Sir John Westwood, Solicitor-General, led three other learned gentlemen, of whom “Bobby” Herrick was the least of juniors; and on the other side were ranged five advocates, the best the Bar could produce or money retain--the leaders being the well-known K.C.’s--Mr Duffus Jacobs, Mr Brill, and Mr Dawson Dalton.