Five thousand dollars to one counsel, three thousand dollars to another, two thousand to another," waving his hand in succession toward Webster and Choate and Dexter.

Such fees, though common enough now, seemed enormous in those days.

Choate smiled in his peculiar fashion, and said nothing; Franklin Dexter looked up from a newspaper he was reading, and exclaimed: "This is beneath our notice"; but Mr.Webster rose to his feet and said with great indignation: "Am I to sit here to hear myself charged with sharing the spoils with a thief ?" The presiding judge said: "The counsel for the Government will confine himself to the evidence." That was all.

But Mr.Webster was deeply incensed.

The jury disagreed.