When he had drawn to a conclusion he gave
another furtive glance at the dock, but Birchill was seated with his head
bowed down, as though tired, and with one hand supporting his face.
Mr. Walters methodically folded up his brief and sat down, with a
sidelong glance in the direction of Mr. Holymead as he did so. Every eye
in court was turned on Holymead as the great K.C. settled his gown on his
shoulders and got up to cross-examine the principal Crown witness.
His cross-examination was the admiration of those spectators whose
sympathies were on the side of the man in the dock as one of themselves.
Hill was cross-examined as to the lapse from honesty which had sent him
to gaol, and he was reluctantly forced to admit, that so far from the
theft being the result of an impulse to save his wife and child from
starvation, as the Counsel for the prosecution had indicated, it was the
result of the impulse of cupidity. He had robbed a master who had trusted
him and had treated him with kindness. Having extracted this fact, in
spite of Hill's evasions and twistings, Holymead straightened himself to
his full height, and, shaking a warning finger at the witness, said:
"I put it to you, witness, that the reason Sir Horace Fewbanks engaged
you as butler in his household at Riversbrook was because he knew you to
be a man of few scruples, who would be willing to do things that a more
upright honest man would have objected to?"
"That is not true," replied Hill.
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