‘I will try, Hester.’

’I will keep up mine.  I will never fail, for your sake and his,’—­here she held the child a moment away from her bosom,—­’I will never allow myself to droop.  To be your wife and his mother shall be enough to support me even though you should be torn from both of us for a time.’

‘I wish I were as brave as you,’ he said.

‘You will leave me here,’ she continued, ’mistress of your house; and if God spares me, here you will find me.  They can’t move me from this.  Your father says so.  They may call me what they will, but they cannot move me.  There is the Lord above us, and before Him they cannot make me other than your wife,—­your wife,—­your wife.’  As she repeated the name, she put the boy out to him, and when he had taken the child, she stretched out her hands upwards, and falling on her knees at his feet, prayed to God for his deliverance.  ’Let him come back to us, O my God.  Deliver him from his enemies, and let him come back to us.’

‘One kiss, my own,’ he said, as he raised her from the ground.

’Oh yes;—­and a thousand shall be in store for you when you come back to us.  Yes; kiss him too.  Your boy shall hear the praises of his father every day, till at last he shall understand that he may be proud of you even though he should have learned why it is that you are not with him.  Now go, my darling.  Go; and support yourself by remembering that I have got that within me which will support me.’  Then he left her.

The old Squire had expressed his intention of being present throughout the trial, and now was ready for the journey.  When counselled to remain at home, both by Mr. Seely and by his son, he had declared that only by his presence could he make the world around him understand how confident he was of his son’s innocence.  So it was arranged, and a place was kept for him next to the attorney.  The servants all came out into the hall and shook hands with their young master; and the cook, wiping her eyes with her apron, declared that she would have dinner ready for him on the following day.  At the front door Mr. Holt was standing, having come over the ferry to greet the young squire before his departure.  ’They may say what they will there, squire, but they won’t make none of us here believe that you’ve been the man to injure a lady such as she up there.’  Then there was another shaking of hands, and the father and son got into the carriage.

The court was full, of course.  Mr. Justice Bramber, by whom the case was to be tried, was reputed to be an excellent judge, a man of no softnesses,—­able to wear the black cap without convulsive throbbings, anxious also that the law should run its course,—­averse to mercy when guilt had been proved, but as clear-sighted and as just as Minos; a man whom nothing could turn one way or another,—­who could hang his friend, but who would certainly not mulct his enemy because he was his enemy.  It had reached Caldigate’s ears that he was unfortunate in his judge; by which, they who had so said, had intended to imply that this judge’s mind would not be perverted by any sentiments as to the prisoner, as to the sweet young woman who called herself his wife at home, or as to want of sweetness on the part of the other woman who claimed him.