He was a middle-aged man, of gentlemanly appearance, his features indicating great determination of character; but they wore an expression of manifest anxiety and apprehension as he entered the dock, and, looking down, beheld immediately beneath him the brother of the man whom he had shot, and through whose ceaseless activity he was then placed on trial for his life as a murderer. And he was to be tried by an uncompromising judge--stern and exact in administering the law, and animated by pure religious spirit; but, withal, thoroughly humane. Throughout the whole of that agitating day, the prisoner stood firm as a rock--sometimes his arms folded, at others his hands resting on the bar; while his eyes were fixed intently on the judge, the witnesses, or the counsel--every now and then glancing with gloomy inquisitiveness at the jury and the judge. His lips were from first to last firmly compressed. It was understood that the counsel for the prosecution were in possession of a damning piece of evidence--viz., that the prisoner had spent nearly the whole of the night immediately preceding the duel in practising pistol-firing. However the _fact_ might be, it nevertheless was not elicited at the trial; and probably the prisoner, who had been prepared for such evidence being produced, began, on finding that it was not so, to take a more favourable view of his chances. As the case stood, however, it looked black enough to those who knew the law, and the character of the judge who sat to administer it. That venerable person began his summing up to the jury about seven o'clock in the evening, and the scene can never be effaced from our memory. The court was extremely crowded; the lights burned brightly, exhibiting anxious faces in every direction: but what a striking figure was the central one--that of the prisoner! Immediately over his head was a mirror, so placed as to reflect his face and figure vividly, especially to the jury. A few moments after the judge had commenced his charge, we observed the Ordinary of Newgate glide into court, the late Rev. Dr Cotton, in full canonicals, and with flowing white hair, having a picturesquely venerable and ominous appearance, and take his seat near to, but a little behind the judge. It was then usual for the Ordinary to be present at the close of capital cases, in order to add a solemn "amen" to the prayer with which the sentence of death concluded--that "God would have mercy on the soul" of the condemned. "Gentlemen of the jury," commenced Mr Baron Bayley, amidst profound silence, "we have heard several times, during the course of this trial, of _the law of honour_; but I will now tell you what is the _law of the land_, which is all that you and I have to do with. It is this: that if two persons go out with deadly weapons, intending to use them against each other, and _do_ use them, and death ensue, that is--murder, wilful murder." He paused for a moment, as if to give the jury time to