ful; and I will stand to the aidge of my oath; but--Mars
Alfred--don't shove me over it."

"Can't you read?"

"No, sir; I never hankered after book-larnin' tomfoolery, and other
freedom frauds."

"You know your A B C's?"

"No more 'n a blind mule."

As the solicitor took from the table in front of the jury box, the
embroidered square of cambric, and held it up by two corners, every eye
in the court-room fastened upon it; and a deadly faintness seized the
prisoner, whitening lips that hitherto had kept their scarlet outlines.

"Gentlemen of the jury, if the murdered man could stand before you, for
one instant only, his frozen finger would point to the fatal letters
which destiny seems to have left as a bloody brand. Here in indelible
colors are wrought 'B. B.'!--Beryl Brentano. Do you wonder, gentlemen,
that when this overwhelming evidence of her guilt came into my
possession, compassion for a beautiful woman was strangled by supreme
horror, in the contemplation of the depravity of a female monster? If
these crimson letters were gaping wounds, could their bloody lips more
solemnly accuse yonder blanched, shuddering, conscience-stricken woman
of the sickening crime of murdering her aged, infirm grandfather, from
whose veins she drew the red tide that now curdles at her heart?"

CHAPTER XVII.

As the third day of the trial wore away, the dense crowd in the
court-room became acquainted with the sensation of having been unjustly
defrauded of the customary public peruisite; because the monotonous
proceedings were entirely devoid of the spirited verbal duels, the
microscopic hair splitting, the biting sarcasms of opposing counsel,
the brow-beating of witnesses, the tenacious wrangling over invisible
legal points, which usually vary and spice the routine and stimulate
the interest of curious spectators. When a spiritless fox disdains to
double, and stands waiting for the hounds, who have only to rend it,
hunters feel cheated, and deem it no chase.

To the impatient spectators, it appeared a very tame, one-sided, and
anomalous trial, where like a slow stream the evidences of guilt oozed,
and settled about the prisoner, who challenged the credibility of no
witness, and waived all the privileges of cross-examination. Now and
then, the audience criticised in whispers the "undue latitude" allowed
by the Judge, to the District Solicitor; but their "exceptions" were
informal, and the prosecution received no serious