'Master Helstrop, Master Helstrop!' cried Jeffreys, shaking his great wig until the powder flew out of it; 'you are in all these dirty cases, Master Helstrop. You might find yourself in a parlous condition, Master Helstrop. I think sometimes that I see you yourself in the dock, Master Helstrop. You may yourself soon need the help of a gentleman of the long robe, Master Helstrop. Oh, have a care! Have a care!'
'The brief is from the Crown, your Lordship,' the lawyer answered, in a quavering voice.
'Must I be answered back, then!' roared Jeffreys, his black eyes blazing with the rage of a demon. 'Am I to be insulted in my own court? Is every five-groat piece of a pleader, because he chance to have a wig and a gown, to browbeat the Lord Justice, and to fly in the face of the ruling of the Court? Oh, Master Helstrop, I fear that I shall live to see some evil come upon you!'
'I crave your Lordship's pardon!' cried the faint-hearted barrister, with his face the colour of his brief.
'Keep a guard upon your words and upon your actions?' Jeffreys answered, in a menacing voice. 'See that you are not too zealous in the cause of the scum of the earth. How now, then? What do these one and fifty villains desire to say for themselves? What is their lie? Gentlemen of the jury, I beg that ye will take particular notice of the cut-throat faces of these men. 'Tis well that Colonel Kirke hath afforded the Court a sufficient guard, for neither justice nor the Church is safe at their hands.'
'Forty of them desire to plead guilty to the charge of taking up arms against the King,' replied our barrister.
'Ah!' roared the Judge. 'Was ever such unparalleled impudence? Was there ever such brazen effrontery? Guilty, quotha! Have they expressed their repentance for this sin against a most kind and long-suffering monarch! Put down those words on the record, clerk!'
'They have refused to express repentance, your Lordship!' replied the counsel for the defence.
'Oh, the parricides! Oh, the shameless rogues!' cried the Judge. 'Put the forty together on this side of the enclosure. Oh, gentlemen, have ye ever seen such a concentration of vice? See how baseness and wickedness can stand with head erect! Oh, hardened monsters! But the other eleven. How can they expect us to believe this transparent falsehood--this palpable device? How can they foist it upon the Court?'
'My Lord, their defence hath not yet been advanced!' stammered Master Helstrop.
'I can sniff a lie before it is uttered,' roared the Judge, by no means abashed. 'I can read it as quick as ye can think it. Come, come, the Court's time is precious. Put forward a defence, or seat yourself, and let judgment be passed.'
'These men, my Lord,' said the counsel, who was trembling until the parchment rattled in his hand. 'These eleven men, my Lord--'
'Eleven devils, my Lord,' interrupted Jeffreys.
'They are innocent peasants, my Lord, who love God and the King, and have in no wise mingled themselves in this recent business. They have been dragged from their homes, my Lord, not because there was suspicion against them, but because they could not satisfy the greed of certain common soldiers who were balked of plunder in--'
'Oh, shame, shame!' cried Jeffreys, in a voice of thunder. 'Oh, threefold shame, Master Helstrop! Are you not content with bolstering up rebels, but you must go out of your way to slander the King's troops? What is this world coming to? What, in a word, is the defence of these rogues?'
'An alibi, your Lordship.'
'Ha! The common plea of every scoundrel. Have they witnesses?'
'We have here a list of forty witnesses, your Lordship. They are waiting below, many of them having come great distances, and with much toil and trouble.'
'Who are they? What are they?' cried Jeffreys.
'They are country folk, your Lordship. Cottagers and farmers, the neighbours of these poor men, who knew them well, and can speak as to their doings.'
'Cottagers and farmers!' the Judge shouted.