ffort made, Jerrem condemned to die. The hopes raised by
the knowledge of Adam's escape seemed crowned with success when, to the
court's dismay, it was announced that the prisoner's accuser could not
be produced: he had mysteriously disappeared the evening before, and in
spite of a most vigorous search was nowhere to be found. But, with minds
already resolved to make this hardened smuggler's fate a warning and
example to all such as should henceforth dare the law, one of the
cutter's crew, wrought upon by the fear lest Jerrem should escape and
baffle the vengeance they had vowed to take, was got to swear that
Jerrem was the man who fired the fatal shot; and though it was shown
that the night was dark and recognition next to impossible, this
evidence was held conclusive to prove the crime, and nothing now
remained but to condemn the culprit. The judge's words came slowly
forth, making the stoutest there shrink back and let that arrow from the
bow of death glance by and set its mark on him upon whose face the crowd
now turned to gaze.

"Can it be that he is stunned? or is he hardened?"

For Jerrem stands all unmoved and calm while, dulled by the sound of
rushing waters, the words the judge has said come booming back and back
again. A sickly tremor creeps through every limb and makes it nerveless;
a sense of growing weight presses the flesh down as a burden on the
fainting spirit; one instant a thousand faces, crowding close, keep out
the air; the next, they have all receded out of sight back into misty
space, and he is left alone, with all around faded and grown confused
and all beneath him slipping and giving way. Suddenly a sound rouses him
back to life: a voice has smote his ear and cleaved his inmost soul; and
lifting his head his eyes are met by sight of Joan, who with a piercing
shriek has fallen back, deathlike and pale, in Reuben's outstretched
arms.

Then Jerrem knows that hope is past and he must die, and in one flash
his fate, in all its misery and shame, stands out before him, and
reeling he totters, to sink down senseless and be carried off to that
dismal cell allotted to those condemned to death; while Reuben, as best
he can, manages to get Joan out of court and into the open air, where
she gradually comes back to life again and is able to listen to such
poor comfort as Reuben's sad heart can find to give her. For by reason
of those eventful circumstances which serve to cement friendships by
suddenly over