regret, admiration, all uniting, all mellowing into one
fearful hope for his acquittal, made themselves felt through the crowded
court.

In two persons only, an uneasy sentiment remained--a sentiment that the
prisoner had not completed that which they would have asked from him.
The one was Lester;--he had expected a more warm, a more earnest,
though, perhaps, a less ingenious and artful defence. He had expected
Aram to dwell far more on the improbable and contradictory evidence of
Houseman, and above all, to have explained away, all that was still left
unaccounted for in his acquaintance with Clarke (as we will still call
the deceased), and the allegation that he had gone out with him on the
fatal night of the disappearance of the latter. At every word of the
prisoner's defence, he had waited almost breathlessly, in the hope that
the next sentence would begin an explanation or a denial on this point:
and when Aram ceased, a chill, a depression, a disappointment, remained
vaguely on his mind. Yet so lightly and so haughtily had Aram approached
and glanced over the immediate evidence of the witnesses against
him, that his silence her might have been but the natural result of a
disdain, that belonged essentially to his calm and proud character. The
other person we referred to, and whom his defence had not impressed with
a belief in its truth, equal to an admiration for its skill, was one far
more important in deciding the prisoner's fate--it was the Judge!

But Madeline--Great God! how sanguine is a woman's heart, when the
innocence, the fate of the one she loves is concerned!--a radiant
flush broke over a face so colourless before; and with a joyous look,
a kindled eye, a lofty brow, she turned to Ellinor, pressed her hand in
silence, and once more gave up her whole soul to the dread procedure of
the court.

The Judge now began.--It is greatly to be regretted, that we have no
minute and detailed memorial of the trial, except only the prisoner's
defence. The summing up of the Judge was considered at that time scarce
less remarkable than the speech of the prisoner. He stated the evidence
with peculiar care and at great length to the jury. He observed how the
testimony of the other deponents confirmed that of Houseman; and
then, touching on the contradictory parts of the latter, he made them
understand, how natural, how inevitable was some such contradiction in
a witness who had not only to give evidence against another, b