A WELL-SPENT SUNDAY. 26l 



The court was crowded to excess, but the 

 rank, as well as the popularity, of the fisher- 

 men procured them an easy entrance : the 

 people shouldering and pushing each other 

 to give them passage, and the magistrates 

 rising and offering them seats. 



The case had been already opened, and 

 the chairman, a stipendiary magistrate, was 

 in the act of examining Mr. Hector, the 

 manager or agent of the fishery, as to the 

 extent of the damage. 



It must be confessed that appearances 

 were considerably against the prisoners, as 

 the police-sergeant, with a little extra osten- 

 tation, by way of making up for his last 

 night's defeat, paraded them before the 

 bench. They were eight in number ; and 

 their wet clothes, covered with sand and 

 sea-weed, seemed rather difficult to be ac- 

 counted for, except on the supposition that 

 they had been engaged waist high in some 

 marine occupation. They, nevertheless, 

 boldly asserted their innocence, and looked 

 every one of them so honest and simple- 

 minded, and so unconcerned withal, and so 

 much at their ease, that it really was difficult 

 to imagine that such men as these could 



