ivate vices fall
upon his head in the shape of the verdict just delivered. It would be
impossible to describe his appearance on hearing it; his head fell down
upon his breast listless, helpless, and with a character of despair that
was painful to contemplate.

When the verdict was handed down, the judge immediately put on the
black-cap; but Whitecraft's head was resting on his breast, and he did
not for some time see it. At length, stirred into something like life by
the accents of the judge, he raised his head with an effort. The latter
addressed him as thus: "Sir Robert Whitecraft, you have been convicted
this day by as enlightened a jury as ever sat in a jury-box. You must
be aware yourself, by the length of time, and consequently the deep and
serious investigation which they bestowed--and, it is evident, painfully
bestowed--upon your unhappy case, that your conviction is the deliberate
result of their conscientious opinion. It is obvious, as I said, from
the length of time occupied in the jury-room, that the evidence in your
case was sifted closely, and canvassed with the ability and experience
of able and honest men. In the verdict they have returned the Court
perfectly concurs; and it now only remains for me to pass upon you that
awful sentence of the law which is due to your cruel life and flagitious
crimes. Were you a man without education, nurtured in ignorance, and the
slave of its debasing consequences, some shade of compassion might be
felt for you on that account. But you cannot plead this; you cannot
plead poverty, or that necessity which urges many a political adventurer
to come out as a tyrant and oppressor upon his fellow-subjects, under
the shield of the law, and in the corrupt expectation of reward or
promotion. You were not only independent in your own circumstances, but
you possessed great wealth; and why you should shape yourself such an
awful course of crime can only be attributed to a heart naturally
fond of persecution and blood. I cannot, any more than the learned
Attorney-General, suffer the privileges of rank, wealth, or position
to sway me from the firm dictates of justice. You imagined that the
law would connive at you--and it did so too long, but, believe me, the
sooner or later it will abandon the individual that has been provoking
it, and, like a tiger when goaded beyond patience, will turn and tear
its victim to pieces. It remains for me now to pronounce the awful
sentence of the law up