Cashel Byron's Profession

It remained for the judge to sweep away the defence, or to favor the

prisoners by countenancing it. Fortunately for them, he was an old

man; and could recall, not without regret, a time when the memory of

Cribb and Molyneux was yet green. He began his summing-up by telling

the jury that the police had failed to prove that the fight was a

prize-fight. After that, the public, by indulging in roars of

laughter whenever they could find a pretext for doing so without

being turned out of court, showed that they had ceased to regard the

trial seriously.

Finally the jury acquitted Mellish, and found Cashel and Paradise

guilty of a common assault. They were sentenced to two days'

imprisonment, and bound over to keep the peace for twelve months in

sureties of one hundred and fifty pounds each. The sureties were

forthcoming; and as the imprisonment was supposed to date from the

beginning of the sessions, the prisoners were at once released.