An Unscrupulous Lawyer. "What is your fee, sir?" "Ten per cent! "Ten per cent, of what? "The amount you stole. "It is too much, why that would be a thousand pounds!" "So much the better for both of us, you will have nine thousand and I shall have one. Now will I tell you what I will do. If I get you acquitted give me the thousand pounds; if you are hanged I'll let your widow ofï with fifty pounds." This was agreed upon and the counsellor left the prison. He at once went to the Crown Office and saw the chief clerk, who said Dublin was in a state bordering on panic for Gleadowe's bank was considered as safe as the government, and if that bank could be robbed, all sense of security would be lost. Costelloe agreed with the chief clerk and expressed a hope that the guilty man might be captured. The clerk said he was cap tured, had been committed, and was already in Newgate. Costelloe professed surprise and then began to question the clerk about. the evidence. "You say the money was all in gold? "Yes, and the rascal left, in the safe, some rolls of farthings marked up to the value of the gold stolen." "But if it were all in gold how could the money be identified? One guinea is exactly like another." "Ah, Counsellor, there is the mark of Providence! Along with the guineas the rascal carried off ten foreign gold ducats, which he had on his person when he was arrested, these have been identified by his deputy and will hang him." "Then the crown has the ducats?" "Yes, here they are." The clerk took the gold coins from his desk, and Costelloe examined them one by one, turning them over and over again and again; then he handed them back and said: "The fellow has undone himself; he will hang." "Yes, he has not a loophole by which to
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escape, not even your skill could save him, Counsellor." Several weeks later the prisoner was brought to trial in the Commission Couit, Green Street. The court room was crowded and members of the bar gathered to witness the discomfiture of Costelloe, for he had allowed it to go abroad that he had no chance of success. On one side of Costelloe sat his clerk, with whom he frequently conversed, and whose hat was on the table before him. The prisoner, with deep emotion, pleaded "Not guilty," and with solemn asservation, added that the rouleaux of farthings found in the safe were just as he had received them from his predecessor and that he had re ceipted for them at the value indicated by the ticket attached to each package; he had never opened them. The witnesses who testified to the prelim inary facts were only lightly cross-examined by the prisoner's counsel. At length the deputy cashier was called and his testimony was very damaging to the prisoner. He tes tified that he had frequently seen the Dutch ducats in the safe and he was able to posi tively identify the pieces now produced by the Crown. Costelloe looked very serious, and seemed deeply overwhelmed by the testimony of the witness. He made no sign of rising and the deputy cashier was stepping from the witness stand when Costelloe in a half-dazed voice and abstracted manner said: "Stop a moment, young man, I have a question or two to ask you on behalf of my unhappy client." The prisoner was weep ing bitterly as the witness again took his seat on the stand. "And so, sir, you accuse your friend of robbery?" "I am sorry that my duty compels me to give criminatory evidence against him." "I understand that. His conviction will gain you a step, eh?" The witness was indignant. In a loud voice he exclaimed:
