THE ART OF CROSS-EXAMINATION
just at the close of Sir Alexander Cockburn's memorable cross-examination. It was the conviction of the expert section of the audience that when the attorney-general resumed his seat, the halter was knotted around the neck of the prisoner too firmly to be loosed. There is little doubt that the doomed wretch read as much in the face of his counsel, and that the outward indifference of the hastily penned inquiry which he flung across to them must have caused a silent agony of doubt and dread.
"Palmer, of course, was not as well accustomed to observe the manners of the presiding judge as were the professional spectators of the scene, but if so, he would have drawn the worst possible augury from Lord Campbell's increasing politeness to him after this incident in the trial—a form of demeanor toward a prisoner which always indicated that in that distinguished judge's opinion, his doom was certain.
"Yet the cross-examination of Mr. Smith, important as its consequences are said to have been, might easily be quoted as a very doubtful illustration of the value of this formidable engine for the extraction, or supposed extraction, of the truth.
"Its effect upon the witness himself left nothing to be desired from the point of view of the operator. No abbreviation, in fact, can give the effect of it. The witness's efforts to gain time, and his distress as the various answers were extorted from him by degrees, may be faintly traced in the report. His face was covered with
252
