emained motionless.

"I think I shall have to send you to prison," said the recorder,
preparing to write. A low groan was the prisoner's only response.

"May it please your honor," began the lawyer, taking a step forward; but
the recorder waved his pen impatiently.

"Why, the more is said the worse his case gets; he's guilty of the
offence charged, by his own confession."

"I am guilty and not guilty," said the prisoner slowly. "I never
intended to be a criminal. I intended to be a good and useful member of
society; but I've somehow got under its wheels. I've missed the whole
secret of living." He dropped his face into his hands. "O Mary, Mary!
why are you my wife?" He beckoned to his counsel. "Come here; come
here." His manner was wild and nervous. "I want you--I want you to go
to Prieur street, to my wife. You know--you know the place, don't you?
Prieur street. Ask for Mrs. Riley"--

"Richling," said the lawyer.

"No, no! you ask for Mrs. Riley? Ask her--ask her--oh! where are my
senses gone? Ask"--

"May it please the court," said the lawyer, turning once more to the
magistrate and drawing a limp handkerchief from the skirt of his dingy
alpaca, with a reviving confidence, "I ask that the accused be
discharged; he's evidently insane."

The prisoner looked rapidly from counsel to magistrate, and back again,
saying, in a low voice, "Oh, no! not that! Oh, no! not that! not that!"

The recorder dropped his eyes upon a paper on the desk before him, and,
beginning to write, said without looking up:--

"Parish Prison--to be examined for insanity."

A cry of remonstrance broke so sharply from the prisoner that even the
reporters in their corner checked their energetic streams of lead-pencil
rhetoric and looked up.

"You cannot do that!" he exclaimed. "I am not insane! I'm not even
confused now! It was only for a minute! I'm not even confused!"

An officer of the court laid his hand quickly and sternly upon his arm;
but the recorder leaned forward and motioned him off. The prisoner
darted a single flash of anger at the officer, and then met the eye of
the justice.

"If I am a vagrant commit me for vagrancy! I expect no mercy here! I
expect no justice! You punish me first, and try me afterward, and now
you can punish me again; but you can't do that!"

"Order in court! Sit down in those benches!" cried the deputies. The
lawyers nodded darkly or blandly, each to each. The one who had
volunteered his counsel wip