e Judge remained expressionless--and so
it went on and meanwhile the daylight faded in the room and the gas was
lighted and the atmosphere, already oppressive, became almost stifling
in its heat, and the crowd moved restlessly and men yawned, and I
listened and listened in dull consciousness till, feeling satisfied that
in the end the Court would rule for the defence, I slipped quietly from
the room. Littell's summing up could alone affect the final result now,
and in the meanwhile the quiet and the cool air of the corridor were
welcome.

As I paced up and down smoking a cigar and weighing in my mind the
chances of the trial, I would occasionally get a momentary glimpse into
the court-room as the door would swing open to permit the exit of some
other weary spectator like myself, and in the hot glare of the gaslights
the scene within would be visible through the doorway like a picture
within a frame, the court with all its surrounding functionaries, the
figure of the speaker gesticulating as he addressed the Judge, the form
of the prisoner bowed and still between his guards, and in the
foreground the dense throng of spectators, all in vivid relief.

I can close my eyes and recall that picture even to this hour, but never
without a feeling of overwhelming melancholy; so strong are the
impressions some things leave upon us.

After a while there was a stir within and some one said that the Court
had sustained the objection of the defence and declined to permit the
recall of the defendant, and that Littell was about to begin his final
argument, and so I hurried back. He was already on his feet in the
centre of the room and facing the jury. He had neither books nor
memoranda by him and evidently relied upon his memory for all he meant
to say.

His voice was deep and serious when he began to speak:

"I have been practising my profession, as your Honor knows, for forty
years and this is the first as it is the last time that I appear before
a criminal tribunal; only a sense of imperative duty as a lawyer and as
a man has brought me here to-day; could I with a clear conscience have
escaped this solemn duty, I would have done so, but a call higher than
has ever appealed to me before has summoned me to the side of a man who
is being wronged, and therefore it is I am here.

"I am without the resources of my brother lawyers accustomed to practise
in this court and I have, therefore, no facts to submit, except those
presented b