five minutes to three
Although he was himself anxious to finish as soon as possible , although he knew that his Swiss friend would be waiting for him , he had grown so used to his occupation that , having begun to speak , he could not stop himself , and therefore he went on to impress on the jury with much detail that if they found the prisoners guilty , they would have the right to give a verdict of guilty ; and if they found them not guilty , to give a verdict of not guilty ; and if they found them guilty of one of the crimes and not of the other , they might give a verdict of guilty on the one count and of not guilty on the other . Then he explained that though this right was given them they should use it with reason . He was going to add that if they gave an affirmative answer to any question that was put to them they would thereby affirm everything included in the question , so that if they did not wish to affirm the whole of the question they should mention the part of the question they wished to be excepted . But , glancing at the clock , and seeing it was already five minutes to three , he resolved to trust to their being intelligent enough to understand this without further comment . `` The facts of this case are the following , '' began the president , and repeated all that had already been said several times by the advocates , the public prosecutor and the witnesses . The president spoke , and the members on each side of him listened with deeply-attentive expressions , but looked from time to time at the clock , for they considered the speech too long though very good -- i.e. , such as it ought to be . The public prosecutor , the lawyers , and , in fact , everyone in the court , shared the same impression .