The trial was very short and very clear. Such things as could be said

for him were said,--how he had taken to industrious habits, and had

thriven lawfully and reputably. But nothing could unsay the fact that

he had returned, and was there in presence of the Judge and Jury. It was

impossible to try him for that, and do otherwise than find him guilty.

At that time, it was the custom (as I learnt from my terrible experience

of that Sessions) to devote a concluding day to the passing of

Sentences, and to make a finishing effect with the Sentence of Death.

But for the indelible picture that my remembrance now holds before me,

I could scarcely believe, even as I write these words, that I saw

two-and-thirty men and women put before the Judge to receive that

sentence together. Foremost among the two-and-thirty was he; seated,

that he might get breath enough to keep life in him.

The whole scene starts out again in the vivid colors of the moment, down

to the drops of April rain on the windows of the court, glittering in

the rays of April sun. Penned in the dock, as I again stood outside it

at the corner with his hand in mine, were the two-and-thirty men

and women; some defiant, some stricken with terror, some sobbing and

weeping, some covering their faces, some staring gloomily about. There

had been shrieks from among the women convicts; but they had been

stilled, and a hush had succeeded. The sheriffs with their great chains

and nosegays, other civic gewgaws and monsters, criers, ushers, a great

gallery full of people,--a large theatrical audience,--looked on, as the

two-and-thirty and the Judge were solemnly confronted. Then the Judge

addressed them. Among the wretched creatures before him whom he must

single out for special address was one who almost from his infancy had

been an offender against the laws; who, after repeated imprisonments and

punishments, had been at length sentenced to exile for a term of years;

and who, under circumstances of great violence and daring, had made his

escape and been re-sentenced to exile for life. That miserable man would

seem for a time to have become convinced of his errors, when far removed

from the scenes of his old offences, and to have lived a peaceable and

honest life. But in a fatal moment, yielding to those propensities and

passions, the indulgence of which had so long rendered him a scourge to

society, he had quitted his haven of rest and repentance, and had

come back to the country where he was proscribed. Being here presently

denounced, he had for a time succeeded in evading the officers of

Justice, but being at length seized while in the act of flight, he had

resisted them, and had--he best knew whether by express design, or in

the blindness of his hardihood--caused the death of his denouncer, to

whom his whole career was known. The appointed punishment for his return

to the land that had cast him out, being Death, and his case being this

aggravated case, he must prepare himself to Die.




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