He was now the lawyer alert and watchful. 'Your trial, Mr. Halliday, takes place in a short time--a few days. I do not know what defence you will attempt--I hope you may be successful--I have thought upon the subject, and, I confess--well--I can only say that I do not know what kind of defence will be possible in a case so clear and so well attested.' 'Hush!' Jenny laid her hand again on my arm. 'Hush!' she whispered. I restrained myself and still sat in silence. 'Let me point out to you--in a moment you will understand why--how you stand. You know, of course, yet it is always well to be clear in one's mind--the principal evidence is that given by those two gentlemen from the country, the young squire of Cumberland--or is it Westmoreland?--and the clergyman of the Sister Kingdom. I have naturally been in frequent communication with those two gentlemen. I find that they are both kept in London to the detriment of their own affairs: that they would willingly get the business despatched quickly so that they would be free to go home again: that they bear no malice--none whatever: one because he is a clergyman, and therefore practises forgiveness as a Christian duty: the other because he is a gentleman who scorns revenge, and, besides, was not the attacked, but the attacking party. "So far," says the noble-hearted gentleman, "from desiring to hang the poor wretch, I would willingly suffer him to go at large." This is a disposition of mind which promises a great deal. I have never found a more happy disposition in any witness before. No resentment: no revenge: no desire for a fatal termination to the trial. It is wonderful and rare. So I came over to tell you what they say and to entreat you to make use of this friendly temper while it lasts. They might--I do not say they will--but they might be induced to withdraw altogether from the trial, in which case the prosecution would fall to the ground. For the case depends wholly upon their evidence. For myself, as you know, I arrived by accident upon the scene, and was too late to see anything. Mr. Merridew tells me that what he saw might have been a fight rather than a robbery; I ought not to have revealed this weak point in the evidence, but I am all for mercy--all for mercy. So I say, that if their evidence is not forthcoming, the prosecution must fall through, and then, dear Sir, liberty would be once more your happy lot.' He stopped and folded his arms. I had not offered him a chair partly because he was Mr. Probus and I would not suffer him to sit in my presence: partly because there was no chair to offer him. 'These gentlemen, Sir,' said Tom, 'are willing, we understand, to retire from the case.' 'I would not say willing. I would rather say, not unwilling.' 'Do they,' Tom asked, 'demand money as a bribe as a price for retiring?'