ut to
refrain from criminating himself. There could be no doubt but that
Houseman was an accomplice in the crime; and all therefore that seemed
improbable in his giving no alarm when the deed was done, was easily
rendered natural, and reconcileable with the other parts of his
evidence. Commenting then on the defence of the prisoner (who, as if
disdaining to rely on aught save his own genius or his own innocence,
had called no witnesses, as he had employed no counsel), and eulogizing
its eloquence and art, till he destroyed their effect by guarding the
jury against that impression which eloquence and art produce in defiance
of simple fact, he contended that Aram had yet alleged nothing to
invalidate the positive evidence against him.

I have often heard, from men accustomed to courts of law, that nothing
is more marvellous, than the sudden change in a jury's mind, which the
summing up of the Judge can produce; and in the present instance it
was like magic. That fatal look of a common intelligence, of a common
assent, was exchanged among the doomers of the prisoner's life and death
as the Judge concluded.

They found the prisoner guilty.

The Judge drew on the black cap.

CHAPTER VI.

THE DEATH.--THE PRISON.--AN INTERVIEW.--ITS RESULT.

"Lay her i' the earth,
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring."
...........
"See in my heart there was a kind of fighting

That would not let me sleep."
--Hamlet.

"Bear with me a little longer," said Madeline. "I shall be well, quite
well presently."

Ellinor let down the carriage window, to admit the air; and she took the
occasion to tell the coachman to drive faster. There was that change in
Madeline's voice which alarmed her.

"How noble was his look! you saw him smile!" continued Madeline, talking
to herself: "And they will murder him after all. Let me see, this day
week, ay, ere this day week we shall meet again."

"Faster; for God's sake, Ellinor, tell them to drive faster!" cried
Lester, as he felt the form that leant on his bosom wax heavier and
heavier. They sped on; the house was in sight; that lonely and cheerless
house; not their sweet home at Grassdale, with the ivy round its porch,
and the quiet church behind. The sun was setting slowly, and Ellinor
drew the blind to shade the glare from her sister's eyes.

Madeline felt the kindness, and s