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to their eyes, and others whispering their
neighbours with looks expressive of ab¬
horrence. A few there were who seemed
unmindful of him, and looked only to the
jury in impatient wonder how they could
delay, but in noone face—not even among
the women, of whom there were many
there — could be read the faintest sym¬
pathy with him, or any feeling but one
of all-absorbing interest that he should
be condemned.
As he saw all this in one bewildered
glance, the death-like stillness came
again, and, looking back, he saw that the
rye had turned towards the judge.
ush !
They only sought permission to retire.
He looked wistfully into their faces one
by one when they passed out, as though
to see which way the greater number
bent; but that was fruitless. The jailer
touched him on the shoulder. He fol¬
lowed mechanically to the end of the
dock, and sat down on a chair. The man
pointed it out, or he would not have seen
it.
He looked up into the gallery again.
Some of the people szan alias onl
some fanning themselves with handker¬
chiefs, for the crowded place was very
hot. There was one young man sketch¬
ing his face in a little note-book. He
wondered whether it was like, and looked
on when the artist broke his pencil-point,
and made another with his knife, as any
idle spectator might have done.
In the same way, when he turned his
eyes towards the judge, his mind began
to busy itself with the fashion of his dress,
and about its cost, and how he put it on.
There was an old fat gentleman on the
bench, too, who had gone out some half
an hour before, and now came back. He
wondered within himself whether this
man had been to get his dinner, what he
had had, and where he had had it, and
pursued this -train of careless thought
until some new object caught his eye and
roused another.
Not that all this time his mind was
for an instant free from one oppressive
overwhelming sense of the grave that
opened at his feet; it was ever present
to him, but in a vague and general way,
and he could not fix his thoughts upon it.
Thus, even while he trembled and turned
burning hot at the idea of speedy death,
he fell to count .> the iron spikes before
him, and wox, . ag how the head of
one had bee broken off, and whether
they would mend it, or leave it as it was.
Then he thought of all the horrors of the
gallows and the scaffold, and stopped to
watch a man sprinkling the floor to cool
it, and then went on to think again.
At length there was a cry of silence,
and a breathless look from all towards
the door. ‘The jury returned, and passed
him close. He could glean nothing from
their faces; they might as well have been
of stone. Perfect stillness ensued—not a
rustle—not a breath—Guilty !
The building rang with a tremendous
shout, and another, and another, and then
it echoed deep loud groans, that gathered
streneth as they swelled out, like angry
thunder. It wasa peal of joy from the
populace outside, greeting the news that
he would die on Monday.
The noise subsided, and he was asked
if he had anything to say why sentence
of death should not be passed upon him.
He had resumed his listening attitude,
and looked intently at his questioner
while the demand was made; but it was
twice repeated before he seemed to hear
it, and then he only muttered that he
was an old man—an old man—an old
man—and so dropping into a whisper,
was silent again.
The judge assumed the black cap, and
the prisoner still stood with the same air
and gesture. A woman in the gallery
uttered some exclamation, called forth
by this dread solemnity; he looked has¬
tily up, as if angry at the interruption,
and bent forward yet more attentively.
The address was solemn and impres¬
sive—the sentence fearful to hear; but
he stood like a marble figure, without
the motion of a nerve. His haggard
face was still bent forward, his under-jaw
hanging down, and his eyes staring out
before him, when the jailer put his hand
upon his arm, and beckoned him away.
He gazed stupidly about him for an in¬
stant, and obeyed.
They led him through a paved room
under the court, where some prisoners
were waiting until their turn came, and
others were talking to their friends, who
crowded round a grate which looked into
the open yard. There was nobody there
to speak to him; but, as he passed, the
prisoners fell back to render him more
visible to the people who were cling¬
ing to the bars, and they assailed him
with opprobrious names, and screeched
and hissed. He shook his fist, and would
have spat upon them, but his conductors
hurried him on through a gloomy passage,
lighted by a few dim lamps, into the inte¬
rior of the prison.
Here he was searched, that he might