Days glided by, the prisoners were remanded till Markum’s chance of life or death should be ascertained, and Alice had not found a fitting moment in which to make her appeal. At length the surgeon, with grave looks, which might mean everything, anything, or nothing, advised, merely as a matter of precaution, that the wounded man should make a deposition before a magistrate, so that if anything _were_ to happen, the jury might have the advantage of his statement of facts. Coverdale, therefore, having persuaded one of his brother magistrates to accompany him, proceeded to the cottage for the above purpose. Shortly after he had set off, Alice was informed that a poor woman was desirous of speaking to her; and on ordering her to be shown in, she was less surprised than embarrassed to recognise in the tearful applicant her cottage hostess, the wife of the culprit, Jack Hargrave. The result of the interview may be easily foreseen. Alice descanted on the greatness of the crime committed, Mr. Coverdale’s virtuous indignation against the offenders, and the consequent difficulty of persuading him not to prosecute them. Mrs. Jack brought forward, in reply, the baby and a flood of tears,--arguments so unanswerable that Alice, having kissed the one, and all but joined in the other, dismissed the afflicted matron, having renewed her pledge of exerting her whole influence in favour of the prisoners. It was with a feeling akin to desperation that she determined to plead her _protégées_’ cause the moment Harry should return, certain that if she again allowed her ardour to cool, she should never have courage to enter upon the subject to him. Accordingly, as soon as he had finished giving her an account of the clear and able manner in which Markum had detailed the proceedings of the eventful night on which the affray had occurred, she began:-- “I, too, have had rather a trying interview; the wife of one of the men who have been taken up on suspicion has been here--a frail, delicate-looking, young creature, scarcely more than a girl, with the dearest, sweetest, little baby imaginable. I do so wish you had seen it!” Harry muttered a reply, which, though scarcely audible, conveyed the impression that he was perfectly content without having had ocular demonstration of its infantine perfections; and Alice continued-- “Yes, I wish you had seen both mother and child--its sweet, innocent looks, and the poor girl’s tears, would have pleaded her cause better than any arguments of mine can do, your kind heart could never have resisted them.”