But Hill was the man for my money, and he had it.  Before morning the favourite was scratched!

It was the race which Hermit won!  Poor Hastings lost heavily and died soon after.  I had backed the wrong horse, and have never ceased to wonder how I could have been so foolish.  “Let me advise you not to speculate amongst us,” were Hill’s words, “for if you do we shall beat you;” and it cost me five pounds to learn that.  A lawyer’s opinion may be worth what is paid for it in a case stated; but of the soundness of of a horse’s wind, or the thousand and one ailments to which that animal’s flesh and blood are heir, I knew nothing—­not so much as the little boy who runs and fetches in the stable, and who could give the ablest lawyer in Great Britain or Ireland odds on any particular favourite’s “public form” and beat him.

Put not your trust in tipsters; they no more knew that Hermit had a chance for the Derby than they could foretell the snowstorm that was coming to enable him to win it.

This was the last bet I ever made; and I owe my abandonment of the practice to Harry Hill, who gave me excellent advice and enforced it by example.

CHAPTER XVI.

ARISING OUT OF THE “ORSINI AFFAIR.”

The “Orsini Affair” was one of high treason and murder.  It was the attempt on the part of a band of conspirators to murder Napoleon III.  In order to accomplish this political object, they exploded a bomb as nearly under his Majesty’s carriage as they could manage, but instead of murdering the Emperor they killed a policeman.

Orsini was captured, tried, and executed in the good old French fashion.  His political career ended with the guillotine—­a sharp remedy, but effective, so far as he was concerned.

One Dr. Simon Bernard was more fortunate than his principal, for he was in England, the refuge of discontented foreign murderers, who try to do good by stealth, and sometimes feel very uncomfortable when they find that it turns out to be assassination.

Bernard was a brother conspirator in this famous Orsini business, and being apprehended in England, was taken to be tried before Lord Chief Justice Campbell, Edwin James and myself being retained for the defence.

There was no defence on the facts, and no case on the law.  He was indicted for conspiracy with Orsini to murder the Emperor in Paris.

I had prepared a very elaborate and exhaustive argument in favour of the prisoner, on the law, and had little doubt I could secure his acquittal; but the facts were terribly strong, and we knew well enough if the jury convicted, Campbell would hang the prisoner, for he never tolerated murder.  With this view of the case, we summoned Dr. Bernard to a consultation, which was held in one of the most ghastly rooms of Newgate.