The String of Pearls (1850), p. 528

Of coure here could "be but one opinion in the minds of all present of the guilt of the prisoners; but it was necessary that that guilt should be legally as well as morally proved, and hence the evidence was very carefully arranged to meet the exigencies of the case.
"Have you any legal adviser?" said the Magistrate to Todd.
"No," was the brief response.
The same question was put to Mrs. Lovett, but she did not answer, and the death-like paleness of her countenance sufficiently testified that it was out of her power to do so. In another moment, overcome by dread and chagrin, she fainted.
"Is she dead?" said Todd.
No one replied to the question, and he added—
"Look to her well or she will yet baffle you. If ever the spirit of a fiend found a home in any human brain it is in that woman's. I say to you, look to her well, or she will still baffle you all by some rare device you little dream of."
Mrs. Lovett in her insensible state was carried from the court, and a surgeon was in prompt attendance upon her. It was found that there was nothing the matter with her; she had merely fainted through sheer vexation of spirt at finding that her overtures to be evidence against Todd were not attended to in the way she had wished; for now, with the loss of everything but life, how glad she would have been to back out of those odious transactions which clung to her.
Todd was asked if he had anything to say,
"Really," he said. "I do not know what it is all about. I am a poor humble man, who get but a scanty living by shaving any kind customer, and all this must be some desperate conspiracy against me on the part of the Roman Catholic, I think."
"The Roman Catholics?"
"Yes, your worship. I never would shave or dress the hair of a Roman Catholic if I knew it, and more than one of that religion have sworn to be avenged upon me."
"And is this your defence?"
"Yes, exactly; it is all I can say; and if I perish, it will be as one of the most innocent of men who ever was persecuted to death."
"Well," said the magistrate, "I have heard many a singular defence, but never one like this."
"It's—it's truth," said Todd, "that staggers your worship."
"Well, you can try what effect it will have upon a jury. I commit you for trial on the charge of wilful murder."
"Murder of whom?"
"Charles James Thornhill."
"Oh, your worship, he is alive and well, and now in Havannah. If I have murdered him, where is the body?"
"We are prepared," said the Attorney General, "with that objection. At the trial we will tell the jury where the body is."
Mrs. Lovett, now having sufficiently recovered, was brought into court to hear that she was committed for trial, but she made no remark upon that circumstance whatever; and in the course of a few moments another shout from the multitude without announced that the prisoners were off to Newgate.

CHAPTER CXXII.
A LARGE PARTY VISITS BIG BEN AND THE LIONS IN THE TOWER.

On the morning following the committal of Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd to Newgate for trial, a rather large party met at the office of Sir Richard Blunt, in Craven Street, Strand. The fact was that after the proceedings at the police-office, Big Ben had earnestly besought them all to name the day to visit him