his interesting period in the history of the
trial--and when Pippin, who could not be made to give up the case, as
Ralph had required, was endeavoring to combat with the attorney of the
state some incidental points of doctrine, and to resist their
application to certain parts of the previously, recorded testimony--that
our heroine, Lucy Munro, attended by her trusty squire, Bunce, made her
appearance in the courthouse.

She entered the hall more dead than alive. The fire was no longer in her
eye--a thick haze had overspread its usually rich and lustrous
expression; her form trembled with the emotion--the strong and
struggling emotion of her soul; and fatigue had done much toward the
general enervation of her person. The cheek was pale with the innate
consciousness; the lips were blanched, and slightly parted, as if
wanting in the muscular exercise which could bring them together. She
tottered forward to the stand upon which the witnesses were usually
assembled, and to which her course had been directed, and for a few
moments after her appearance in the courtroom her progress had been as
one stunned by a sudden and severe blow.

But, when roused by the confused hum of human voices around her, she
ventured to look up, and her eye, as if by instinct, turned upon the
dark box assigned for the accused--she again saw the form, in her mind
and eye, of almost faultless mould and excellence--then there was no
more weakness, no more struggle. Her eye kindled, the color rushed into
her cheeks, a sudden spirit reinvigorated her frame; and, with clasped
hands, she boldly ascended the small steps which led to the stand from
which her evidence was to be given, and declared her ability, in low
tones, almost unheard but by the judge, to furnish matter of interest
and importance to the defence. Some little demur as to the formality of
such a proceeding, after the evidence had been fairly closed, took place
between the counsel; but, fortunately for justice, the judge was too
wise and too good a man to limit the course of truth to prescribed
rules, which could not be affected by a departure, in the present
instance, from their restraints. The objection was overruled, and the
bold but trembling girl was called upon for her testimony.

A new hope had been breathed into the bosoms of the parties most
concerned, on the appearance of this interruption to the headlong and
impelling force of the circumstances so fatally arrayed against the
pri