jewels identified as those
formerly deposited in Gen'l Darrington's vault, were found in
possession of the prisoner; and as if every emissary of fate were armed
with warrants for her detection, a handkerchief bearing her initials,
and saturated with the chloroform which she had administered to her
victim, was taken from the pillow, where his honored gray head rested,
when he slept his last sleep on earth. Further analysis would insult
your intelligence, and having very briefly laid before you the intended
line of testimony, I believe I have assigned a motive for this
monstrous crime, which must precipitate the vengeance of the law, in a
degree commensurate with its enormity. Time, opportunity, motive, when
in full accord, constitute a fatal triad, and the suspicious and
unexplainable conduct of the prisoner in various respects, furnishes,
in connection with other circumstances of this case, the strongest
presumptive evidence of her guilt. These circumstances, far beyond the
realm of human volition, smelted and shaped in the rolling mills of
destiny, form the tramway along which already the car of doom thunders;
and when they shall have been fully proved to you, by unassailable
testimony, no alternative remains but the verdict of guilty. Mournful
as is the duty, and awfully solemn the necessity that leaves the issue
of life and death in your hands, remember, gentlemen, Curran's immortal
words: 'A juror's oath is the adamantine chain that binds the integrity
of man to the throne of eternal justice'."

No trace of emotion was visible on the prisoner's face, except at the
harsh mention of her mother's name; when a shudder was perceptible, as
in one where dentist's steel pierces a sensitive nerve. In order to
avoid the hundreds of eyes that stabbed her like merciless probes, her
own had been raised and fixed upon a portion of the cornice in the room
where a family of spiders held busy camp; but a fascination song
resisted, finally drew their gaze down to a seat near the bar, and she
encountered the steady, sorrowful regard of Mr. Dunbar.

Two months had elapsed since the Christmas morning on which she had
rejected his floral offering, and during that weary season of waiting,
she had refused to see any visitors except Dyce and Sister Serena;
resolutely denying admittance to Miss Gordon. She knew that he had been
absent, had searched for some testimony in New York, and now meeting
his eyes, she saw a sudden change in their ex