e that you have
rightly loosed the silver cord which he had measured, have justly broken
the golden bowl which he had fashioned! Oh, my lord," he concluded, his
dark eyes flashing with excitement, "it is possible that the first
announcement of my innocence of this crime, to which you will give
credence, may be proclaimed from the awful tribunal of him who alone
cannot err! How if he, whose eye is even now upon us, should then
proclaim, '_I_ too, sat in judgment on the day when you presumed to doom
your fellow-worm; and _I_ saw that the murderer was not in the dock, but
on the bench!' Oh, my lord, think well of what you do--pause ere you
incur such fearful hazard; for be assured, that for all these things God
will also bring _you_ to judgment!"

He ceased, and sank back exhausted. His fervid declamation produced a
considerable impression upon the auditory; but it soon disappeared before
the calm, impressive charge of the judge, who re-assured the startled
jury, by reminding them that their duty was to honestly execute the law,
not to dispute about its justice. For himself, he said, sustained by a
pure conscience, he was quite willing to incur the hazard hinted at by
the prisoner. After a careful and luminous summing up, the jury, with
very slight deliberation, returned a verdict of "Guilty."

As the word passed the lips of the foreman of the jury, a piercing shriek
rang through the court. It proceeded from a tall figure in black, who,
with closely-drawn veil, had sat motionless during the trial, just before
the dock. It was the prisoner's mother. The next instant she rose, and
throwing back her veil wildly exclaimed, "He is innocent--innocent, I
tell ye! I alone"--

"Mother! mother! for the love of Heaven be silent!" shouted the prisoner
with frantic vehemence, and stretching himself over the front of the
dock, as if to grasp and restrain her.

"Innocent, I tell you!" continued the woman. "I--I alone am the guilty
person! It was I alone that perpetrated the deed! He knew it not,
suspected it not, till it was too late. Here," she added, drawing a sheet
of paper from her bosom--"here is my confession, with each circumstance
detailed!"

As she waved it over her head, it was snatched by her son, and, swift as
lightning, torn to shreds. "She is mad! Heed her not--believe her not!"
He at the same time shouted at the top of his powerful voice, "She is
distracted--mad! Now, my lord, your sentence! Come!"

The tumult and e