The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Life Sentence, by Adeline Sergeant

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Title: A Life Sentence
A Novel

Author: Adeline Sergeant

Release Date: April 14, 2010 [EBook #31984]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A LIFE SENTENCE.

A NOVEL.

BY
ADELINE SERGEANT,
_Author of "The Luck of the House," "Under False
Pretences," etc., etc._

MONTREAL:
JOHN LOVELL & SON,
23 St. Nicholas Street.

Entered according to Act of Parliament in the year 1889, by John Lovell
& Son, in the office of the Minister of Agriculture and Statistics at
Ottawa.

A LIFE SENTENCE.

CHAPTER I.

"Do you find the prisoner guilty or not guilty?"

"We find the prisoner guilty, my lord."

A curious little thrill of emotion--half sigh, half sob--ran through the
crowded court. Even the most callous, the most world-hardened, of human
beings cannot hear unmoved the verdict which condemns a fellow-creature
to a shameful death. The spectators of Andrew Westwood's trial for the
murder of Sydney Vane had expected, had predicted, the result; yet it
came with the force of a shock to their excited nerves. The trial had
lasted for two whole days already, and the level rays of sunshine that
streamed through the west windows of the court-house showed that the
afternoon of a third day was drawing to a close. The attention of the
patient sitters with whom the seats were closely packed had been
strained to the uttermost; the faces of many were white and weary, or
flushed with excitement and fatigue. The short absence of the jurymen
had only strung their nerves to a higher pitch; and the slight murmur
that passed through the heavy air when the verdict was made know