nsen's
uplifted hand fell to his side, and he was speechless.

"Speak now," said the Judge. "Why have you brought Michael Sunlocks
here?"

Jason stood silent for a moment as if to brace himself up, and then
he said, "I have laid my soul bare to your gaze already, and you know
what I am and where I come from."

A low moan seemed to echo him.

"But I, too, am an Icelander, and this is our ancient Mount of Laws,
the sacred ground of our fathers and our fathers' fathers for a
thousand years."

A deep murmur rose from the vast company.

"And I have heard that if any one is wronged and oppressed and
unjustly punished, let him but find his way to this place, and though
he be the meanest slave that wipes his forehead, yet he will be a man
among you all."

There were loud cries of assent.

"I have also heard that this Mount, on this day, is as the gate of
the city in old time, when the judges sat to judge the people; and
that he who is permitted to set foot on it, and cross it, though he
were as guilty as the outlaws that hide in the desert, is innocent
and free forever after. Answer me--is it true? Yes or no?"

"Yes! yes!" came from a thousand throats.

"Then, judges of Iceland, fellow-men and brothers, do you ask why I
have brought this man to this place? Look at this bleeding hand." He
lifted the right hand of Sunlocks. "It has been pierced with a nail."
A deep groan came from the people. He let the hand fall back. "Look
at these poor eyes. They are blind. Do you know what that means? It
means hellish barbarity and damned tyranny."

His voice swelled until it seemed to shake the very ground on which
he stood. "What this man's crime may be I do not know, and I do not
care. Let it be what it will, let the man be what he may--a felon
like myself, a malefactor, a miscreant, a monster--yet what crime and
what condition deserves punishment that is worse than death and
hell?"

"None, none," shouted a thousand voices.

"Then, judges of Iceland, fellow-men and brothers, I call on you to
save this man from that doom. Save him for his sake--save him for
your own, for He that dwells above is looking down on you."

He paused a moment and then cried, "Listen!"

There was a low rumble as of thunder. It came not from the clouds,
but from the bowels of the earth. The people turned pallid with
dismay, but Jason's face was lit up with a wild frenzy.

"Do you hear it? It is the voice that was heard when these old hills
wer