About noon
The jurors were sworn in , -- a special jury , -- and long was the time taken , and many the threats made by the Chief Justice , before twelve gentlemen would consent to go into the box . Crowds were round the doors of the court , of which every individual man would have paid largely for standing-room to hear the trial ; but when they were wanted for use , men would not come forward to accept a seat , with all that honour which belongs to a special juryman . And yet it was supposed that at last there would be no question to submit to a jury . About noon the Solicitor began his statement . He was full of smiles and nods and pleasant talk , gestures indicative of a man who had a piece of work before him in which he could take delight . It is always satisfactory to see the assurance of a cock crowing in his own farm-yard , and to admire his easy familiarity with things that are awful to a stranger bird . If you , O reader , or I were bound to stand up in that court , dressed in wig and gown , and to tell a story that would take six hours in the telling , the one or the other of us knowing it to be his special duty so to tell it that judge , and counsellors , and jury , should all catch clearly every point that was to be made , -- how ill would that story be told , how would those points escape the memory of the teller , and never come near the intellect of the hearers !