nnocent of even the
remotest intent to use under any provocation beneath high heaven the
pistols--oiled, primed, and duelling type--with which, by chance or for
the merest whim of ornament, he had decked his person upon this eventful
night. Mr. Rand tells us so, and doubtless he knows whereof he speaks.

"So armed and so harmless, gentlemen, the prisoner, having committed
forgery, does now his second crime--the pitiful robbery. The key that he
has forged with care is true to him, the gold lies at his mercy,
underneath his hand; he lifts it up, the shining thing; he bears it
away. The hour has struck, the deed is done; irrevocable, it takes its
place upon the inexpugnable record. He has stolen, and there is no power
in heaven or earth to change that little fact. We are grown squeamish in
these modern days, and no longer brand a thief with heated iron. No
letter will appear, seared on his shoulder or his hand, but is he less
the thief for that? He himself has done the branding, and Eternity
cannot wear out the mark. He goes. With his stolen gold he steals away.
It is night. There are only the stars to watch his flight, and he cares
not for the stars--they never tell. Have they not, time out of mind,
stood the friend of all gentlemen of the road? He quits the house that
has seen his crime; he leaves dull and honest men asleep; he bestows no
parting glance upon the dim, familiar ways. His native land is
naught--he's for green fields and pastures new--he's for Tom and Dick
and Harry, and all their goodly company--he's for 'Over the hills and
far away.'"

The counsel for the prosecution finished his speech. The judge summed up
the case, the jury retired, and very shortly returned with the expected
verdict of Guilty. The chalk-white and shaking prisoner stood up, was
sentenced and removed, and, the business of the day being over, the
court adjourned.

Good-naturedly, laughing and talking after the morning's restraint, the
crowd, gentle and simple, from the lower part of the room, was in the
course of jostling toward the door, when there came a sudden check
coupled with exclamations from those nearest the bar, and with a general
turning of heads and bodies in that direction.

The lawyer for the prosecution and the lawyer for the defence stood
opposed, a yard of court-room floor between them, and around them a ring
of excited friends and acquaintances. There had been high voices, but
now a silence fell, and the throng held i