to the whole trial a character of
gloom and despair. The constables who applied his shoes to the footmarks
were then produced, and swore in the clearest manner as to their
corresponding. They then deposed to finding the tinder-box in his
pocket, according to the information received from Flanagan, every
tittle of which they found to be remarkably correct.

There was only one other witness now necessary to complete the
chain against him, and he was only produced because Biddy Nulty, the
servant--maid, positively stated, and actually swore, when previously
examined, that she was ignorant whether Connor slept in his father's
house on the night in question or not. There was no alternative,
therefore, but to produce the father; and Fardorougha Donovan was
consequently forced to become an evidence against his own son.

The old man's appearance upon the table excited deep commiseration for
both, and the more so when the spectators contemplated the rooted sorrow
which lay upon the wild and wasted features of the woe-worn father.
Still the old man was composed and calm; but his calmness was in an
extraordinary degree mournful and touching. "When he, sat down, after
having been sworn, and feebly wiped the dew from his thin temples, many
eyes were already filled with tears. When the question was put to him if
he remembered the night laid in the indictment, he replied that he did.

"Did the prisoner at the bar sleep at home on that night?"

The old man looked into the face of the counsel with such an eye of
deprecating entreaty, as shook the voice in which the question was
repeated. He then turned about, and, taking a long gaze at his son, rose
up, and, extending his hands to the judges, exclaimed:

"My lords, my lords! he is my only son--my only child!"

These words were followed by a pause in the business of the court, and a
dead silence of more than a minute.

"If justice," said the judge, "could on an occasion waive her claim to a
subordinate link in the testimony she requires, it would certainly be
in a case so painful and affecting as this. Still, we cannot permit
personal feeling, however amiable, or domestic attachment, however
strong, to impede her progress when redressing public wrong. Although
the duty be painful, and we admit that such a duty is one of unexampled
agony, yet it must be complied with; and you consequently will answer
the question which the counsel has put to you. The interests of society
require s