task of demonstrating, that to fasten the imputation on the
accused, would be to overlook a complication of inconsistencies, all
explained by his own account of himself, but utterly inexplicable on
the hypothesis of his guilt.

'Circumstantial evidence is universally acknowledged to be perilous
ground for a conviction; and I never saw a case in which it was more
manifestly delusive than in the present, bearing at first an imposing
and formidable aspect, but on examination, confuted in every detail.
Most assuredly,' continued the counsel, his voice becoming doubly
earnest, 'while there is even the possibility of innocence, it becomes
incumbent on you, gentlemen of the jury, to consider well the fearful
consequences of a decision in a matter of life or death--a decision for
which there can be no reversal. The facts that have come to light are
manifestly incomplete. Another link in the chain has yet to be added;
and when it shall come forth, how will it be if it should establish the
guiltlessness of the prisoner too late? Too late, when a young life of
high promise, and linked by close family ties, and by bonds of ardent
friendship with so many, has been quenched in shame and disgrace, for a
crime to which he may be an utter stranger.

'The extinction of the light in that upper window was the sign for
darkness and horror to descend on the mill! Here is the light of life
still burning, but a breath of yours can extinguish it in utter gloom,
and then who may rekindle it! Nay, the revelation of events that would
make the transactions of that fatal night clear as the noonday, would
never avail to rekindle the lamp, that may yet, I trust, shine forth to
the world--the clearer, it may be, from the unmerited imputations,
which it has been my part to combat, and of which his entire life is a
confutation.'

Mrs. Pugh was sobbing under her veil; Gertrude felt the cause won. Tom
noiselessly clapped the orator behind his brother's back, and nodded
his approval to his father. Even Leonard lifted up his face, and shot
across a look, as if he felt deliverance near after the weary day, that
seemed to have been a lifetime already, though the sunbeams were only
beginning to fall high and yellow on the ceiling, through the heated
stifling atmosphere, heavy with anxiety and suspense. Doctor May was
thinking of the meeting after the acquittal, of the telegram to
Stoneborough, of the sister's revival, and of Ethel's greeting.

Still