life, as life seemed valueless? And so was
it: he heard with indifference the order for his removal to Limerick,
although that implied a Jail! He listened to the vulgar but kindly meant
counsels of his keepers, who advised him to seek legal assistance, with
a smile of half-contempt. The obdurate energy of a martyrdom seemed
to take possession of him; and, so far from applying his mind to
disentangle the web of suspicion around him, he watched, with a strange
interest, the convergence of every minute circumstance towards the proof
of his guilt; a secret vindictiveness whispering to his heart that the
day would come when his innocence should be proclaimed; and then, what
tortures of remorse would be theirs who had brought him to a felon's
death!

Each day added to the number of these seeming proofs, and the
newspapers, in paragraphs of gossiping, abounded with circumstances that
had already convinced the public of Cashel's guilt: and how often do
such shadowy convictions throw their gloom over the prisoner's dock! One
day, the fact of the boot-track tallying precisely with Roland's, filled
the town; another, it was the pistol-wadding--part of a letter addressed
to Cashel--had been discovered. Then, there were vague rumors afloat
that the causes of Cashel's animosity to Kennyfeck were not so secret as
the world fancied; that there were persons of credit to substantiate
and explain them; and, lastly, it was made known that among the papers
seized on Cashel's table was a letter, just begun by himself, but to
whom addressed uncertain, which ran thus:--

"As these in all likelihood may be the last lines I shall eyer write--"

Never, in all the gaudy glare of his prosperity, had he occupied more
of public attention. The metaphysical penny-a-liners speculated upon the
influence his old buccaneer habits might have exercised upon a mind so
imperfectly trained to civilization; and amused themselves with guesses
as to how far some Indian "cross" in blood might not have contributed
to his tragic vengeance. Less scrupulous scribes invented deeds of
violence: in a word, there seemed a kind of impulse abroad to prove
him guilty; and it would have been taken as a piece of casuistry, or a
mawkish sympathy with crime, to assume the opposite. Not, indeed,
that any undertook so ungracious a task; the tide of accusation ran
uninterrupted and unbroken. The very friendless desolation in which
he stood was quoted and commented on to this end.