The King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their throne when
they arrived, with a great crowd assembled about them—all sorts of
little birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards: the
Knave was standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each
side to guard him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a
trumpet in one hand, and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the
very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of tarts
upon it: they looked so good, that it made Alice quite hungry to
look at them—“I wish they’d get the trial done,” she thought, “and
hand round the refreshments!” But there seemed to be no chance of
this; so she began looking at everything about her to pass away the
time.
Alice had never been in a court of justice before, but she had
read about them in books, and she was quite pleased to find that
she knew the name of nearly everything there. “That’s the judge,”
she said to herself, “because of his great wig.”
The judge, by the way, was the King; and as he wore his crown
over the wig, (look at the frontispiece if you want to see how he
did it), he did not look at all comfortable, and it was certainly
not becoming.
“And that’s the jury-box,” thought Alice; “and those twelve
creatures,” (she was obliged to say “creatures,” you see, because
some of them were animals, and some were birds,) “I suppose they
are the jurors.” She said this last word two or three times over to
herself, being rather proud of it: for she thought, and rightly
too, that very few little girls of her age knew the meaning of it
at all. However, “jurymen” would have done just as well.
The twelve jurors were all writing very busily on slates. “What
are they doing?” Alice whispered to the Gryphon. “They ca’n’t have
anything to put down yet, before the trial’s begun.”
“They’re putting down their names,” the Gryphon whispered in
reply, “for fear they should forget them before the end of the
trial.”
“Stupid things!” Alice began in a loud, indignant voice; but shetrial.”
“Stupid things!” Alice began in a loud, indignant voice; but she
stopped hastily, for the White Rabbit cried out, “Silence in the
court!”, and the King put on his spectacles and looked anxiously
round, to make out who was talking.
Alice could see, as well as if she were looking over their
shoulders, that all the jurors were writing down “Stupid things!”
on their slates, and she could even make out that one of them
didn’t know how to spell “stupid,” and that he had to ask his
neighbour to tell him. “A nice muddle their slates’ll be in before
the trial’s over!” thought Alice.
One of the jurors had a pencil that squeaked. This, of course,
Alice could not stand, and she went round the court and got behind
him, and very soon found an opportunity of taking it away. She did
it so quickly that the poor little juror (it was Bill, the Lizard)
could not make out at all what had become of it; so, after hunting
all about for it, he was obliged to write with one finger for the
rest of the day; and this was of very little use, as it left no
mark on the slate.
“Herald, read the accusation!” said the King.
On this the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and
then unrolled the parchment-scroll, and read as follows:—
“The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away!”
“Consider your verdict,” the King said to the jury.
“Not yet, not yet!” the Rabbit hastily interrupted. “There’s a
great deal to come before that!”
“Call the first witness,” said the King; and the White Rabbit
blew three blasts on the trumpet, and called out, “First
witness!”
The first witness was the Hatter. He came in with a teacup in
one hand and a piece of bread-and-butter in the other. “I beg
pardon, your Majesty,” he began, “for bringing these in; but I
hadn’t quite finished my tea when I was sent for.”
“You ought to have finished,” said the King. “When did you
begin?”
The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who had followed him intobegin?”
The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who had followed him into
the court, arm-in-arm with the Dormouse. “Fourteenth of March, I
think it was,” he said.
“Fifteenth,” said the March Hare.
“Sixteenth,” said the Dormouse.
“Write that down,” the King said to the jury; and the jury
eagerly wrote down all three dates on their slates, and then added
them up, and reduced the answer to shillings and pence.
“Take off your hat,” the King said to the Hatter.
“It isn’t mine,” said the Hatter.
“Stolen!” the King exclaimed, turning to the jury, who instantly
made a memorandum of the fact.
“I keep them to sell,” the Hatter added as an explanation. “I’ve
none of my own. I’m a hatter.”
Here the Queen put on her spectacles, and began staring hard at
the Hatter, who turned pale and fidgeted.
“Give your evidence,” said the King; “and don’t be nervous, or
I’ll have you executed on the spot.”
This did not seem to encourage the witness at all: he kept
shifting from one foot to the other, looking uneasily at the Queen,
and in his confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead
of the bread-and-butter.
Just at this moment Alice felt a very curious sensation, which
puzzled her a good deal until she made out what it was: she was
beginning to grow larger again, and she thought at first she would
get up and leave the court; but on second thoughts she decided to
remain where she was as long as there was room for her.
“I wish you wouldn’t squeeze so.” said the Dormouse, who was
sitting next to her. “I can hardly breathe.”
“I ca’n’t help it,” said Alice very meekly: “I’m growing.”
“You’ve no right to grow here,” said the Dormouse.
“Don’t talk nonsense,” said Alice more boldly: “you know you’re
growing too.”
“Yes, but I grow at a reasonable pace,” said the Dormouse: “not
in that ridiculous fashion.” And he got up very sulkily and crossed
over to the other side of the court.
All this time the Queen had never left off staring at the
Hatter, and, just as the Dormouse crossed the court, she said, to