ends, and
where everything possible was done and said to support her under the
terrible ordeal of her trial. Being still under bail, as she would be to
the end of her trial, she was then permitted to return home with her
friends for the night.

One little touching event must be recorded here, as it showed the
thoughtful tenderness of her nature. Even in the midst of her anguish of
anxiety in regard to the awful issues in the result of this trial, she
remembered baby Cro' and his small interests; and she stopped in the
village to procure for him that "something good" which she had promised.

But to do the orphan justice, he was gladder to see Sybil than to get
what she brought him.

Miss Tabby caught her in her arms, and wept over her.

Raphael did not weep, nor even speak; but he clasped her hands, and
looked at her with a silent grief more eloquent that words or tears. It
was a period of agony to all concerned; and Sybil was indebted to opium
for all the sleep she got that night.

CHAPTER XV.

THE VERDICT.

'Tis not ever
The justice and the truth o' th' question carries
The due o' th' verdict with it.--SHAKESPEARE.

At an early hour the next morning the court was opened, the Judges
resumed their seats, and the accused was conducted back to her place.

Ishmael Worth opened for the defence.

I shall not even attempt to give so much as an epitome of his speech. I
should never be able to do justice to the logic, eloquence, pathos, and
power of his oratory. I shall only indicate that the points upon which
he dwelt most were, the magnanimous nature of his client, which rendered
her utterly incapable of committing the atrocious crime with which she
stood charged; the fatal fallibility of circumstantial evidence, which
he illustrated by direct reference to many recorded cases, well-known to
the legal profession, in which parties had been convicted and executed,
under the strongest possible circumstantial evidence, and had afterwards
been discovered to have been guiltless; the facility with which a
murderer might have concealed himself in that bedroom occupied by the
deceased on the night of the murder, have eluded the search of the
sleepy nurse, and after committing his crime, being frightened by the
screams of his awakened victim, should have escaped through the window
and slammed the shutter to, from the outside, when it would fasten
itself with its spring bolt; the