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Rh and his friends in India busied themselves with collecting testimonials and 'other creditable vouchers,' from the very people whom he was said to have plundered and oppressed. On the 13th February, 1788, began in Westminster Hall the famous trial whose opening scene inspired one of the most splendid passages that ever came from Macaulay's pen. Into this scene Hastings entered in 'a plain, poppy-coloured suit of clothes .' His small, spare figure was still upright, and his bearing showed a due mixture of deference and dignity. A high forehead, with arched eyebrows overhanging soft, sad eyes, which presently flashed defiance on his accusers ^, a long sensitive nose that contrasted with the firmer lines of his mouth and chin, and the calm pallor of an oval face framed in brown waving hair, — all seemed to harmonise with the leading traits of his character and the chequered story of his past life.

Two days were spent in reading out the twenty charges and the defendant's replies to each. Burke's opening speech on the whole case lasted through four days, and drove some of his hearers into hysterical fits with its revolting details of imaginary crimes and atrocities almost beyond belief. The speaker's long-winded yet soul-stirring eloquence drew forth some words of praise even from the hardheaded Thurlow, and made Hastings fancy himself the monster which Burke was painting him in a rich variety of phrase. But there were some at least of Burke's audience