Nor was he mistaken. The evidence she gave was entirely in
favour of the trio.
The case for the prosecution was concluded. For the defence, Gerald
Kirby, K.C., resorted to satire. He characterized the whole
proceedings as the most absurd heard in any Court for the past two
centuries, and wondered, only, that it had been possible to procure a
counsel for such a ridiculous prosecution.
"Even though," he remarked, "spirits such as have been specified by
the prosecution do exist--which is extremely dubious--there has never
yet been produced any reliable corroborative evidence respecting them,
and the Prosecution has wholly failed to prove, that it is through the
medium of these spirits, that the Modern Sorcery Company have worked
their spells. The marvellous feats that we have all seen performed in
Cockspur Street have been accomplished--as the defendants have all
along stated--through will--sheer will power and nothing else; and I
intend producing evidence to show that the secret of the wonderful
efficacy of all the charms and spells sold by the Sorcery Company,
lies in will power also. Whenever they have been consulted with regard
to the purchasing of a spell, the Firm have invariably pointed out
this fact to the purchasers, carefully explaining at the same time
that the rings, lockets and other articles sold to them were merely to
assist them in concentration. It is ridiculous to suppose that such
trivial articles could have produced, of themselves, such calamities
as the witnesses for the prosecution attributed to them.
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