AN ODD DEFENCE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 223, 20 September 1907, Page 3

AN ODD DEFENCE.

In Dick Donovan's book of memoirs he tells a funny story at the.expense of Anthony Trollope. A letter-carrier, charged with some irregularity, was being prosecuted at the Hertford Assizes. He'was defended by a clever Irish barrister, and one of the witnesses was Anthony Trollope. "What are you?" asked the barrister, in a severe and commanding tone, with a rich brogue. " An* official in the post office," answered Trollope, rather surprised at the brusqueness of the question. '-'Anything else?" demanded the counsel with a snap. The witness replied, rather proudly, "Yes, an author." " What is the name of your last book?" "Barchester Towers." " Now tell me," asked the counsel, "is there a word of truth in that book?" "Well," was the reply, "it is generally called a work of fiction." "Fiction!" exclaimed the lawyer, with a scornful curl of the lip. "Fiction! That is to say there isn't a word of truth in it from beginning to end?" "I—l'm afraid if you put it that way, there isn't," stammered Trollope, with some embarrassment. Counsel turned to the jury, and said, with a triumphant chuckle, " Gentlemen, how can you possibly convict a man on the evidence of a witness like this ,who here in this court of justice, unblushingly confesses that he has written a book in which there is not a word of truth?" The barrister got his man off, and afterwards, when relating his triumph, said that Trollope was one of the finest witnesses he had ever had to deal with. The story, however good, endows Trollope with a meekness of demeanour which few who knew him would have credited him with."