ht be seen the intense anxiety under which he labored.
He was evidently urging some proposition with all his might, to which
the other listened with deep attention.

At this instant Fagan's arm was tapped by a hand from the crowd. He
turned, and as suddenly grew deadly pale; for it was Raper stood before
him!--Raper, whom he believed at that moment to be far away in a remote
part of the country.

"What brings you here? How came you to Dublin?" said Fagan, in a voice
tremulous with passion.

"We have just arrived; we heard that you were here, and he insisted upon
seeing you before he left town."

"Where is he, then?" asked Fagan.

"In his carriage at the door of the court-house."

"Does he know--has he heard of the case before the court? Speak, man! Is
he aware of what is going on here?"

The terrified eagerness of his whisper so overcame poor Raper that he
was utterly unable to reply, and Fagan was obliged to clutch him by the
arm to recall him to consciousness. Even, then, however, his vague and
broken answer showed how completely his faculties were terrorized over
by the despotic influence of his master. An indistinct sense of having
erred somehow overcame him, and he shrank back from the piercing glance
of the other, to hide himself in the crowd. Terrible as that moment
of suspense must have been to Fagan, it was nothing to the agony which
succeeded It, as he saw the crowd separating on either side to leave a
free passage for the approach of an invalid who slowly came forward
to the side-bar, casting his eyes around him, in half-bewildered
astonishment at the scene.

Being recognized by the Bench, an usher of the court was sent round to
say that their Lordships would make room for him beside them; and my
father--for it was he--with difficulty mounted the steps and took his
seat beside the Chief Justice, faintly answering the kind inquiries for
his health in a voice weak and feeble as a girl's.

"You little expected to see me in such a place as this, Walter!" cried
out Curtis from the dock; "and I just as little looked to see your
father's son seated upon the bench at such a moment!"

"What is it? What does it all mean? How is Curtis there? What has
happened?" asked my father, vaguely.

The Chief Justice whispered a few words in reply, when, with a shriek
that made every heart cold, my father sprang to his feet, and, leaning
his body over the front of the bench, cried out,--

"It was I killed Barry Rutl