y? Will you explain to the jury what duty?"

The witness's head rose, then sank. He, as well as every one else, seemed
to be impressed by the solemnity of the moment. Though the intensity of
my own interest would not allow my eyes to wander from his face, I could
imagine the strained look in Ella's, as she awaited his words.

They came in another instant, but with less steadiness than he had shown
before. I even thought I could detect a tremor in his muscles, as well as
in his voice:

"I had rebelled against my sister's wishes; I had grieved and deceived
her up to the very night of her foul and unnatural death--and all
through _drink_."

Here his eye flashed, and for that fleeting moment he looked a man. "I
wished to take an oath--an oath I would remember. It was for this purpose
I ordered the casket opened, and thrust my fingers through the flowers I
found there. When my fingers touched my sister's brow, I inwardly swore
never to taste liquor again. I have kept that oath. Difficult as it was,
in my state of mind, and with all my troubles, I have kept it--and been
misunderstood in doing so," he added, in lower tones, and with just a
touch of bitterness.

It was such an unexpected explanation, and so calculated to cause a
decided and favourable reaction in the minds of those who had looked upon
this especial act of his as an irrefutable proof of guilt, that it was
but natural that some show of public feeling should follow. But this was
checked almost immediately, and Mr. Moffat's voice was heard rising again
in his strange but telling examination:

"When you thrust your hand in to take this oath, did you drop anything
into your sister's casket?"

"I did not. My hand was empty. I held no ring, and dropped none in. I
simply touched her forehead."

This added to the feeling; and, in another instant, the excitement might
have risen into hubbub, had not the emotions of one little woman found
vent in a low and sobbing cry which relieved the tension and gave just
the relief needed to hold in check the overstrained feelings of the
crowd. I knew the voice and cast one quick glance that way, in time to
see Ella sinking affrightedly out of sight under the dismayed looks of
father and mother; then, anxious to note whether the prisoner had
recognised her, too, looked hastily back to find him standing quietly and
unmoved, with his eyes on his counsel and his lips set in the stern line
which was slowly changing his expression.