# XX: The End of the Trial explained — The Law and the Lady

> Chapter companion for The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins.

## What happens

The trial concludes with the Lord Advocate's prosecuting speech, the Dean of Faculty's defense, and the judge's charge. The jury returns a verdict of 'Not Proven,' leaving a slur on Eustace. Valeria, outraged by the prosecution, vows to clear her husband's name.

## Themes in this chapter

### Justice and Truth

The trial's verdict leaves Eustace under a cloud; Valeria sees the prosecution as perverting truth and vows to achieve real justice.

### Secrets and Deception

The defense argues that the wife kept her arsenic use secret, a deception that led to the husband's peril.

### Gender Roles and Agency

Valeria's reaction—tearing pages and vowing action—contrasts with the passive male jury; the defense highlights women's secret cosmetic practices.

## Character check-ins

### Valeria

Narrates the trial's end, expresses outrage at the Lord Advocate, and vows to vindicate her husband.

### Eustace Macallan

The prisoner at the bar; described as grief-stricken and silent after the 'Not Proven' verdict.

### Miserrimus Dexter

Testifies as a witness; speaks slightingly of Mrs. Beauly and suggests private reasons for distrusting her.

### Mrs. Macallan

Mentioned as the deceased wife; described as charming but sensitive, with a poet's nature.

### Mrs. Beauly

Referenced in testimony; Miserrimus Dexter speaks of her rudely, implying distrust.

### Lord Advocate

Prosecuting lawyer; delivers a speech Valeria deems infamous, asserting Eustace's guilt and perverting his actions.

## Key lines

> I do not scruple to say that I never read anything so infamous as this great lawyer's speech.

Valeria declares the Lord Advocate's speech to be the most disgraceful she has ever encountered.

_Expresses her outrage at the prosecution's tactics._

> The jury, thoroughly bewildered no doubt, took refuge in a compromise. They occupied an hour in considering and debating among themselves in their own room. (A jury of women would not have taken a minute!) Then they returned into court, and gave their timid and trimming Scotch Verdict in these words: 'Not Proven.'

The confused jury compromised with a 'Not Proven' verdict after an hour, which Valeria criticizes as timid and contrasts with a hypothetical quicker female jury.

_Highlights Valeria's disdain for the verdict and her gendered commentary._

> And there they would have remained for all time—but for me.

Valeria asserts that the case would have been forgotten if not for her intervention.

_Foreshadows her determination to clear Eustace's name._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_law_and_the_lady_se/chapters/xx-the-end-of-the-trial
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_law_and_the_lady_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_law_and_the_lady_se/chapters