ve rushed into the
commission of such an act. The brief period of your existence has
been stained by no other crime. On the contrary, you have maintained
a character far above your situation in life--a character equally
remarkable for gentleness, spirit, truth, and affection--all of which
your appearance and bearing have this day exhibited. Your countenance
presents no feature expressive of ferocity, or of those headlong
propensities which lead to outrage; and I must confess, that on no
other occasion in my judicial life have I ever felt my judgment and my
feelings so much at issue. I cannot doubt your guilt, but I shed those
tears that it ever existed, and that a youth of so much promise should
be cut down prematurely by the strong arm of necessary justice,
leaving his bereaved parents bowed down with despair that can never
be comforted. Had they another son--or another child, to whom their
affections could turn--"

Here the judge felt it necessary to pause, in consequence of his
emotions. Strong feelings had, indeed, spread through the whole court,
in which, while he ceased, could be heard low moanings, and other
symptoms of acute sorrow.

"It is now your duty to forget every earthly object on which your heart
may have been fixed, and to seek that source of consolation and mercy
which can best sustain and comfort you. Go with a penitent heart to the
throne of your Redeemer, who, if your repentance be sincere, will in no
wise cast you out. Unhappy youth, prepare yourself, let me implore you,
for an infinitely greater and more awful tribunal than this. There,
should the judgment be in your favor, you will learn that the fate,
which has cut you off in the bloom of early life, will bring an
accession of happiness to your being for which no earthly enjoyment
here, however prolonged or exalted, could compensate you. The
recommendation of the jury to the mercy of the crown, in consideration
of your youth and previous good conduct, will not be overlooked; but in
the mean time the court is bound to pronounce upon you the sentence
of the law, which is, that you be taken from the prison from which you
came, on the eighth of next month, at the hour of ten o'clock in the
forenoon, to the front drop of the jail, and there hanged by the neck,
until you be dead; and may God have mercy on your soul!"

"My lord," said the prisoner, unmoved in voice or in manner, unless it
might be that both expressed more decision and energy than he