seized Bagwax’s great point.  But it was a most telling article.  And the writer, as he turned it off at his club, and sent it down to the office of the paper, was ready to bet a five-pound note that Caldigate would be out before a week was over.  The Secretary of State saw the article, and acknowledged its power.  And then even the ‘Slipper’ turned round and cautiously expressed an opinion that the time had come for mercy.

There could be no doubt that public opinion was running very high in Caldigate’s favour, and that the case had become thoroughly popular.  People were again beginning to give dinner-parties in London, and at every party the matter was discussed.  It was a peculiarly interesting case because the man had thrown away so large a sum of money!  People like to have a nut to crack which is ’uncrackable,’—­a Gordian knot to undo which cannot even be cut.  Nobody could understand the twenty thousand pounds.  Would any man pay such a sum with the object of buying off false witnesses,—­and do it in such a manner that all the facts must be brought to light when he was tried?  It was said here and there that he had paid the money because he owed it;—­but then it had been shown so clearly that he had not owed any one a penny!  Nevertheless the men were all certain that he was not guilty, and the ladies thought that whether he were guilty or not did not matter much.  He certainly ought to be released from prison.

But yet the Secretary doubted.  In that unspoken but heartfelt accusation of cowardice which the judge had made against the great officer of State there had been some truth.  How would it be if it should be made to appear at the approaching trial that the two reprobates, who had turned Queen’s evidence against their associates, were to break down altogether in their assertions?  It might possibly then become quite apparent that Caldigate had married the woman, and had committed bigamy, when he would already have been pardoned for the last three months!  The pardon in that case would not do away with the verdict,—­and the pardoned man would be a convicted bigamist.  What, then, would be the condition of his wife and child?  If subsequent question should arise as to the boy’s legitimacy, as might so probably be the case, in what light would he appear, he who had taken upon himself, on his own responsibility, to extort from her Majesty a pardon in opposition to a righteous and just verdict,—­in opposition to the judge who had tried the case?  He had been angry with Judge Bramber for not deciding, and was now frightened at the necessity of deciding himself.

In this emergency he sent for the gentleman who had managed the prosecution on the part of the Crown, and asked him to read up the case again, ‘I never was convinced of the prisoner’s guilt,’ said the barrister.

‘No!’

’It was one of those cases in which we cannot be convinced.  The strongest point against him was the payment of the money.  It is possible that he paid it from a Quixotic feeling of honour.’