whom all that flow of turbid oratory left finally masters of themselves. Fanny Burney, for instance, has vividly described the different stages of feeling through which she passed, from the highest admiration of the orator's varied powers, through some moments of sheer despair for the cause of Hastings, down to the perfect composure with which she followed Burke's later comments and tirades, when his charges became more general and his violence more and more uncontrolled. Then indeed, 'there appeared more of study than of truth, more of invective than of justice, and in short so little of proof to so much of passion, that in a very short time I began to lift up my head, my seat was no longer uneasy, my eyes were indifferent which way they looked or what object caught them;' until at last she found herself 'a mere spectator in a public place,' looking calmly about her with opera-glass in hand[1].
The next sittings of the Court were taken up in discussing points of procedure, in hearing the speeches of Fox and Grey on the Benares charge, in reading documents, examining witnesses for the prosecution, and listening to the Managers' last words. In the middle of April one of the Managers opened the charge concerning the Begams, which was summed up early in June by Sheridan in a long, sarcastic, highly glittering speech, that ended by his sinking gracefully into Burke's arms. Thereupon the Court, having sat for thirty-five days, adjourned to the following year.
- ↑ Gleig, Debrett, Morley's Burke.
