the senators took their places, not a murmur was heard, all was fixed attention.—The senators sat for some minutes in awful silence.
The chief justice was a man of great knowledge in the laws of his country; of a clear head and a sound understanding. He was descended of a distinguished house in Andalusia, which had produced so many senators, that the office seemed to be hereditary in the family.—He at last

addressed his brethren—
'It is not my custom, respected signors, to speak in this court, till I have first heard your worshipful sentiments; but I now feel myself called upon to take the lead, and to offer, with humble deference to your mightinesses, my opinion on the manner in which we should take up this very important cause.—I am a lawyer it is true,—but I am also a nobleman,—and it is for the honour of Spain that our lawyers are such.—I find here before me, a process, the intention of which is to stigmatize with infamy a princess of the noblest blood in Europe. We have the continued acknowledgment of parents.—We have their positive and dying testimony; with the positive and dying testimony of a woman who was present at the birth of the

defendant.—I lay my hand upon my heart, and I judge as I would wish to be judged. Can I then suppose all this to be a complication of guilt, of deliberate and downright perjury?—No, signors;—I cannot, unless upon a strong proof indeed. And what is the proof that has been brought? These testimonies remain untouched.—They are uniform and consistent in the grand point. Upon what then do the plaintiffs rest their extraordinary plea?—They have embarked us in a mare magnum of circumstances, picked up at the distance of fourteen years. And I must say, picked up from the streets of Paris, from the very dregs of the French Canaille. It is true, that the defendant has also his ragged evidences; but let us consider who first called in

the lame and the blind. Had not the plaintiffs built, the defendant had not been obliged to pull down.—Signors, I am only surprised to see Don Pedro here. I know him, and I regard him; and it has all along been most difficult for me to reconcile the cause and the lawyer; but when I consider how imperceptibly he has been led away, I excuse him; and I here publickly acquit his honour. For my own part, signors, I have no difficulty; and were not the prince of Arvidoso a minor, these