perfect naturalness of the circumstance
that the accused, on hearing her guest scream, should have flown down
those communicating stairs to her assistance, and should have drawn from
her wounded bosom the dagger left there by the flying murderer. This,
and much more than can even be touched upon here, he said, and then
proceeded to call witnesses for the defence.

These were some of the old friends and neighbors of the accused lady,
who warmly bore witness to the generosity and nobility of her nature,
which placed her in their estimation so far above the possibility of
committing a crime so heinous.

Then came the white servants of her household, who described the
situation of Rosa Blondelle's rooms on the first floor of Black Hall;
the easy entrance into them from the grounds below, and the insecure
spring fastenings of the windows, which might be opened from without by
a thin knife passed under the latch and lifted.

All felt how small the amount of material was, out of which even the
most learned and eloquent advocate could make a defence for Sybil
Berners.

The examination of the witnesses for the defence closed.

Mr. Sheridan then made his last effort for his client, and was followed
by Mr. Worth, both of whom exerted their utmost faculties in the
hopeless cause of their unhappy client.

But ah! no eloquence of theirs, of any one's, could do away with the
damning evidence against the accused lady.

The State's attorney, in a final address to the jury, pointed out this
fact, and then sat down.

The venerable Judge Joseph Ruthven arose to sum up the evidence and
charge the jury. We know that he believed in the innocence of the pure
and noble young lady, whom he had known from her earliest infancy. Such
a belief under such circumstances must have swayed the judgement and
affected the action of the justest judge under the sun.

Judge Ruthven palpably leaned to the side of the prisoner. After summing
up the evidence for the prosecution rather briefly and coldly, he urged
upon the jury the value of a good name in the case of an accused party;
the excellent name of the accused lady; the unreliability of
circumstantial evidence; the fallibility even of the testimony of the
dying, when such testimony was given in the excitement of terror and the
agony of death; of how such testimony, however sincerely given and
believed in, had often been utterly disproved by subsequent events; and
finally, that if a single doubt