Then there is something which the young attorney hesitates to translate until he is charged with concealing testimony which will injure his case: “‘It is the doom of God,’” he repeats then. “‘God meant me to stay and die in the ice. But I defied His purposes and came here. God is taking His vengeance. It is useless. These things are come upon me and my country because of sin. I must suffer them. They must. It is the doom of God!’” “Oh! Is he THAT sort?” laughs the district attorney, and the benchers laugh with him. The court declines to be amused. It takes time to be amused. And he has none to spare—before dinner. The prosecuting officer, with a significant smile, declines to cross-examine, and so far as the Commonwealth is concerned, submits the case without argument to the jury. His assistant questions the propriety of this. “Always wins,” he laughs. “The jury think either that it is not worth while, or that I think it safe, and agree accordingly. Juries haven’t much mind, you know. Besides, think of those idle golf sticks!” They laugh together. “And, further, it will flabbergast the doughty champion of the foreign gentleman. He won’t know how to begin—since he will have nothing of mine to answer or suggest.” VI THE FOOLISHNESS OF PREACHING This seems true. Forrest knows the trick, and now he rises with manifest fear and trembling. “Although the Commonwealth does not care to address you,” he says, “I conceive it my duty to do so—” “I told you he would be caught,” whispers the district attorney to his assistant, in glee. “There is only one counter to that trick, and that is to submit your own case. Then the jury is compelled to think that the defence has as much or more confidence in its case than the Commonwealth. For it has more to gain from a speech.” “—It is not proven that a watch has been stolen, nor that an officer was assaulted, yet that is exactly and only what the prisoner is charged with. All that is proven is that a man had a watch before he collided with the prisoner, and that he did not have it afterward. The law in its mercy has provided that every man shall be presumed innocent until he is proven guilty—_proven_, remember!—not guessed guilty—” His address is now, unfortunately, to the court, who is getting more and more hungry.