necessitate
most anomalous procedure, where the goal sought is simple truth and
justice; and since the prisoner prefers to rest her cause, I come to
this bar as Amicus Curiae, and appeal for permission to plead in behalf
of my clients, truth and justice, who hold me in perpetual retainment.
In prosecution of the real criminal, in order to unravel the curiously
knitted web, and bring the culprit to summary punishment, I ask you,
gentlemen of the jury, to ponder dispassionately the theory I have now
the honor to submit to your scrutiny.

"The prisoner, whom I regard as the victim of my culpable haste and
deplorably distorted vision, is as innocent of Gen'l Darrington's
murder as you or I; but I charge, that while having no complicity in
that awful deed, she is nevertheless perfectly aware of the name of the
person who committed it. Not particeps crimmis, neither consenting to,
aiding, abetting nor even acquainted with the fact of the crime, until
accused of its perpetration; yet at this moment in possession of the
only clue which will enable justice to seize the murderer. Conscious of
her innocence, she braves peril that would chill the blood of men, and
extort almost any secret; and shall I tell you the reason? Shall I give
you the key to an enigma which she knows means death?

"Gentlemen of the jury, is there any sacrifice so tremendous, any
anguish so keen, any shame so dreadful, any fate so overwhelmingly
terrible as to transcend the endurance, or crush the power of a woman's
love? Under this invincible inspiration, when danger threatens her
idol, she knows no self; disgrace, death affright her not; she extends
her arms to arrest every approach, offers her own breast as a shield
against darts, bullets, sword thrusts, and counts it a privilege to lay
down life in defence of that idol. O! loyalty supreme, sublime,
immortal! thy name is woman's love.

"All along the march of humanity, where centuries have trailed their
dust, traditions gleam like monuments to attest the victory of this
immemorial potency, female fidelity; and when we of the nineteenth
century seek the noblest, grandest type of merely human
self-abnegation, that laid down a pure and happy life, to prolong that
of a beloved object, we look back to the lovely image of that fair
Greek woman, who, when the parents of the man she loved refused to give
their lives to save their son, summoned death to accept her as a
willing victim; and deeming it a privilege