‘As I said at the commencement of my observations, this is a painful case. I do not remember that, in all my experience, I have had to do with a prosecution in which one’s natural sympathies would be more strongly excited in favour of the prisoner. His youth and his character, hitherto blameless, will naturally and properly tell in his favour. It would only be natural, also, if you found yourselves sympathizing with the keen feelings of disappointment with which a young man would hear of an intention on the part of an uncle to alienate the greater part of his fortune from those who may reasonably have looked forward to inheriting it. But these sympathies you are, for the present, bound to forget. Your one thought must be--Did the accused commit the offence with which he is charged? As to the motive for the crime, you must remember that the prisoner is one of the residuary legatees under the will; in other words, the alteration in the legacy would put the sum of two hundred and forty-seven thousand five hundred pounds into the prisoner’s pocket. Crimes much more serious than this have been committed ere now for the tenth part of such a sum, by men who had, up to the moment of temptation, led innocent lives. If you can, after hearing the evidence, entertain a reasonable, a serious doubt of the prisoner’s guilt, you will, of course, let him have the benefit of it. But if the facts as proved point irresistibly, in your opinion, to the conclusion that the offence of which he is accused was committed by him, it will be your duty--however painful that duty may be--to say so by your verdict.’ A faint rustle passed over the court as Mr. Collithorne sat down. Cameron, who from his corner could see the faces of the jurymen, noticed that they wore a very serious look. And Alec? He knew that the counsel for the Crown had spoken nothing but the truth; and his heart died within him. He felt that his character was ruined irretrievably in the eyes of the world. He could almost have wished that the formalities of the trial could be omitted and sentence pronounced at once, that he might hide himself from the cold and curious eyes around him in the quiet seclusion of his cell. The first witnesses called were the servants who had witnessed the will. The junior counsel for the Crown, a young gentleman with a very new wig and a very nervous manner, asked them the necessary questions, and Mr. Corker did not think it worth while to cross-examine them.