passion, as, all regardless of his
own safety, he endeavored to restore his expiring friend to life, have
assured me, that though they were witnesses of the whole scene, they
felt for _him_ only the deepest commiseration."

And here Mr. W---- paused and wiped his eyes repeatedly, and the sobs
of the young prisoner were heard all over the court room.

"There was one," Mr. W---- continued, "of whom he wished to speak, and
whom, on some accounts, he would have been glad to bring before the jury
to-day. But he would not outrage the feelings of his young friend by
urging him to consent to the entreaties of his lovely sister, that she
might be permitted to sit by his side in that prisoner's seat to-day.
She is his only sister; he her only brother; and they are orphans."
(Here there was a faltering of the voice, a pause, which was very
effective; and after apparently a great effort, Mr. W---- went on.)

"She has sat beside him hour after hour, and day after day, in yonder
dreary jail, endeavoring to make the weary hours of solitude and
captivity less irksome, and lead the prisoner's heart away from earthly
trouble to heavenly comfort. Her hope in the jury of to-day is strong.
She believes they will not doom her young and only brother to an
ignominious death, and a dishonored grave; she even hopes that they
will not consign him to long years of weary imprisonment; she feels that
he is changed; that he no longer trusts to his own strength to overcome
his naturally strong and violent passions; but that his trust is in the
arm of the Lord his God, who 'turneth the hearts of men as the rivers of
water are turned.'"

"May He dispose the hearts of these twelve men, on whom the fate of this
youth now hangs, so that they shall show, that like Himself they are
_lovers of mercy_."

And Mr. W---- sat down and covered his face with his handkerchief. The
hope and expectation of acquittal now were very strong.

And now slowly rose the counsel for the prosecution. Mr. G---- was a
tall thin man, of a grave and stern expression of countenance; his hair
was of an iron-gray, and his piercing gray eye shone from under his
shaggy eye-brows like a spark of fire. It was the only thing that looked
like _life_ about him; and when he first rose he began to speak in a
slow, distinct, unimpassioned manner, and without the least attempt at
eloquence.

"He _had_ intended," he said, "to call a few more witnesses, but he
found it was utterly unnecess