hey
returned to the jury--box, and, as the foreman handed down their
verdict, a feather might have been heard falling in the court. The faces
of the spectators got pale, and the hearts of strong men beat as if the
verdict about to be announced were to fall upon themselves, and not
upon the prisoner. It is at all times an awful and trying ceremony to
witness, but on this occasion it was a much more affecting one than had
occurred in that court for many years. As the foreman handed down the
verdict, Connor's eye followed the paper with the same calm resolution
which he displayed during the trial. On himself there was no change
visible, unless the appearance of two round spots, one on each cheek, of
a somewhat deeper red than the rest. At length, in the midst of the dead
silence, pronounced in a voice that reached to the remotest extremity of
the court, was heard the fatal sentence--"Guilty;" and afterwards, in
a less distinct manner--"with our strongest and most earnest
recommendation for mercy, in consequence of his youth and previous good
character." The wail and loud sobbings of the female part of the crowd,
and the stronger but more silent grief of the men, could not, for many
minutes, be repressed by any efforts of the court or its officers. In
the midst of this, a little to the left of the dock, was an old man,
whom those around him were conveying in a state of insensibility out of
the court; and it was obvious that, from motives of humane consideration
for the prisoner, they endeavored to prevent him from ascertaining that
it was his father. In this, however, they failed; the son's eye caught a
glimpse of his grey locks, and it was observed that his cheek paled
for the first time, indicating, by a momentary change, that the only
evidence of agitation he betrayed was occasioned by sympathy in the old
man's sorrows, rather than by the contemplation of his own fate.

The tragic spirit of the day, however, was still to deepen, and a more
stunning blow, though less acute in its agony, was to fall upon the
prisoner. The stir of the calm and solemn jurors, as they issued out
of their room; the hushed breaths of the spectators, the deadly silence
that prevails, and the appalling announcement of the word "Guilty," are
circumstances that test in man fortitude, more even than the passing of
the fearful sentence itself. In the latter case, hope is banished, and
the worst that can happen known; the mind is, therefore, thrown bac