The jury returned from considering their verdict; there was a flutter, an excited murmur, a death-like hush. The foreman delivered his message:
"The jury find the prisoner guilty of blowing up the Albert Hall. The jury wish to add a rider drawing attention to the fact that a by-election is pending in the Parliamentary division of Nemesis-on- Hand."
"That, of course," said the Government Prosecutor, springing to his feet, "is equivalent to an acquittal?"
"I hardly think so," said the Judge, coldly; "I feel obliged to sentence the prisoner to a week's imprisonment."
"And may the Lord have mercy on the poll," a Junior Counsel exclaimed irreverently.
It was a scandalous sentence, but then the Judge was not on the Ministerial side in politics.
The verdict and sentence were made known to t
