oke with the most anxious attention. At the end, the
judge said a few words to me approving of my conduct, and then there
was a clapping of hands among the people in court. I was so agitated and
excited that I trembled all over when they let me go out into the air
again.

I looked at the prisoner both when I entered the witness-box and when
I left it. The lowering brutality of his face was unchanged, but his
faculties seemed to be more alive and observant than they were at the
police-office. A frightful blue change passed over his face, and he drew
his breath so heavily that the gasps were distinctly audible while I
mentioned Mary by name and described the mark or the blow on her temple.
When they asked me if I knew anything of the prisoner, and I answered
that I only knew what Mary herself had told me about his having been
her father's ruin, he gave a kind of groan, and struck both his hands
heavily on the dock. And when I passed beneath him on my way out of
court, he leaned over suddenly, whether to speak to me or to strike me
I can't say, for he was immediately made to stand upright again by the
turnkeys on either side of him. While the evidence proceeded (as Robert
described it to me), the signs that he was suffering under superstitious
terror became more and more apparent; until, at last, just as the lawyer
appointed to defend him was rising to speak, he suddenly cried out, in
a voice that startled every one, up to the very judge on the bench:
"Stop!"

There was a pause, and all eyes looked at him. The perspiration was
pouring over his face like water, and he made strange, uncouth signs
with his hands to the judge opposite. "Stop all this!" he cried again;
"I've been the ruin of the father and the death of the child. Hang me
before I do more harm! Hang me, for God's sake, out of the way!" As soon
as the shock produced by this extraordinary interruption had subsided,
he was removed, and there followed a long discussion about whether he
was of sound mind or not. The matter was left to the jury to decide
by their verdict. They found him guilty of the charge of manslaughter,
without the excuse of insanity. He was brought up again, and condemned
to transportation for life. All he did, on hearing the dreadful
sentence, was to reiterate his desperate words: "Hang me before I do
more harm! Hang me, for God's sake, out of the way!"

June 20th. I made yesterday's entry in sadness of heart, and I have not
been better in