herefore, address the
jury, who have already heard your words, and will accord them any
consideration they may merit."

"It may be, my Lord," said Cashel, "that evidence so strongly imbued
with probability may induce the gentlemen in that box to believe me
guilty; in which case, I understand, your Lordship would address to me
the formal question, 'If I had anything to say why sentence of death
should not be passed upon me.' Now, if I am rightly informed, any
observations of a prisoner at such a moment are regarded rather in the
light of petitions for mercy, than as explanations or corrections of
falsehood. I have, therefore, only now to say, that, whatever
decision you may come to, the Court shall not be troubled further with
interference of mine."

The Judge bowed slightly, as if in reply to this, and began his
charge; but the foreman of the jury, leaning forward, said that his
fellow-jurors had desired him to ask, as a favor to themselves, that the
prisoner might be heard. A short conference ensued between the Bench and
the Crown counsel, which ended by the permission being accorded; and now
Cashel rose to address the Court.

"I will not," said he, "abuse the time of this Court by any irrelevant
matter, nor will I advert to a single circumstance foreign to the
substance of the charge against me. I purpose simply to give a narrative
of the last day I passed with my poor friend, and to leave on record
this detail as the solemn protestation of innocence of one who has too
little to live for to fear death."

With this brief preface he began a regular history of that eventful
day, from the hour he had started from Tubbermore in company with Mr.
Kennyfeck.

The reader is already familiar with every step and circumstance of
that period, so that it is not necessary we should weary him by any
recapitulation; enough if we say that Cashel proceeded with a minuteness
devoid of all prolixity, to mention each fact as it occurred, commenting
as he went on upon the evidence already given, and explaining its
import without impugning its truth. Juries are ever disposed to listen
favorably to a speaker who brings to his aid no other allies than candor
and frankness, and who, without pretensions to legal acuteness, narrates
facts with clear and distinctive precision. Leaving him, therefore,
still speaking, and in the irresistible force of truth gradually winning
upon his hearers, let us quit the court for a brief time, and passing