Can you inform me whether it is so ?" "Yes, sir, it is so.

You perceive that she is not in the dock with the other prisoner.

She is in custody, however, in the sheriff's room.

The prosecution cannot afford to arraign her, because they cannot do without her testimony," answered the stranger.
A buzz of conversation passed like a breeze through the impatient crowd.
"Silence in the court!" called out the crier.
And all became as still as death.
Mr.Roy, assistant counsel for the crown, arose and read the indictment, charging the prisoner at the bar with the willful murder of Sir Lemuel Levison, at Castle Lone, on the twenty-first day of June, Anno Domini, so and so.

Without making any comment, the prosecutor sat down.
The Clerk of Arraigns then arose, and demanded of the accused-- "Prisoner at the bar, are you guilty or not guilty of the crimes with which you stand indicted ?" Potts, who stood pale and trembling and clutching the rails in front of the dock, replied earnestly though informally: "Not guilty, upon my soul, my lords and gentlemen, before Heaven, and as I hope for salvation." And overpowered by fear, he sank down on the narrow bench at the back of the dock.
The trial proceeded.
Queen's Counsel, Mr.James Stuart, took the indictment from the hands of his assistant, and proceeded to open it with a short, pithy address to the judges and the jury, and closed by requesting that Alexander McRath, house-steward of Castle Lone, in the service of the deceased, should be called.
The venerable, gray-haired old Scot, being duly called, came forward and took the stand.
Mr.McIntosh, assistant Queen's Counsel, conducted his examination.
Being duly sworn, Alexander McRath testified as to the facts within his own knowledge relating to the case, and which have already been laid before our readers--briefly, they referred to the finding of the dead body of the late Sir Lemuel Levison in his bed-chamber, to which no one except his confidential valet, the prisoner at the bar, had a pass-key, or could have gained admittance during the night.
The witness was cross-examined by Mr.Keir of the counsel for the prisoner, but without having his testimony weakened.
Other domestic servants were called, who corroborated the evidence given by the last one as to the finding of the dead body, and the intimate and confidential relations which had subsisted between the deceased and the prisoner at the bar, who always carried a pass-key to his master's private apartments.
Then the boy, Ferguson, a saddler's apprentice from the village of Lone, was called to the stand; and being sworn and examined, testified to the meeting and the conspiracy at midnight before the murder, under the balcony, near Malcolm's Tower, at Castle Lone, to which he had been an eye and ear-witness.
This witness was subjected to a very severe cross-examination, which rather developed and strengthened his testimony than otherwise.
McNeil, the ticket agent of the railway station at Lone, was next called, sworn, and examined.