d played his game very well,
and, notwithstanding his appeals to their independence of judgment, they
knew full surely what would happen to him who gave his vote against the
president. So they swallowed their better feelings with all the ease for
which such swallowing is noted, and one by one uttered the fatal word.

When they had all done Frank Muller addressed Silas:

"Prisoner, you have heard the judgment against you. I need not now
recapitulate your crimes. You have had a fair and open trial by
court-martial, such as our law directs. Have you anything to say why
sentence of death should not be passed upon you in accordance with the
judgment?"

Old Silas looked up with flashing eyes, and shook back his fringe of
white hair like a lion at bay.

"I have nothing to say. If you will do murder, do it, black-hearted
villain that you are! I might point to my grey hairs, to my murdered
servant, to my home that took me ten years to build--destroyed by you!
I might tell you how I have been a good citizen and lived peaceably
and neighbourly in the land for more than twenty years--ay, and done
kindness after kindness to many of you who are going to butcher me in
cold blood! But I will not. Shoot me if you will, and may my death lie
heavy on your heads. This morning I would have said that my country
would avenge me; I cannot say that now, for England has deserted us, and
I have no country. Therefore I leave the vengeance in the hands of God,
who never fails to avenge, though sometimes He waits for long to do
it. I am not afraid of you. Shoot me--now if you like. I have lost my
honour, my home, and my country; why should I not lose my life also?"

Frank Muller fixed his cold eyes upon the old man's quivering face and
smiled a dreadful smile of triumph.

"Prisoner, it is now my duty in the name of God and the Republic, to
sentence you to be shot to-morrow at dawn, and may the Almighty forgive
you your wickedness and have mercy upon your soul.

"Let the prisoner be removed, and let a man ride full speed to the empty
house on the hillside, where the Englishman with the red beard used to
live, one hour this side of Wakkerstroom, and bring back with him the
clergyman he will find waiting there, that the prisoner may be offered
his ministrations. Also let two men be set to dig the prisoner's grave
in the burial-place at the back of the house."

The guards laid their hands upon the old man's shoulders, and he turned
and went wit