e sigh or two
from his laboring chest,--and again arose.

"Judge, then," said he, again addressing the jury, "what a taking I was
in. My boy--but no--I canna touch on that, he was--gone!" said he in a
husky voice that seemed to require all his physical force to send it
from the bottom of his chest. "My wife was for weeks worse than dead,
and never has been, and never will be, herself again. When I inquired
after the mare,--you can guess--when was a broken leg of a horse
successfully set again? They had been obliged to kill her!

"Now, neighbors, I deny nothing. I wunna!--but I'll put it to any of
you, if you were in like case, and a fleet mare stood ready at hand,
would you have weighed anything but her speed against a wife and--a
child?--No, had she been my own, I should have taken her, and that was
all I had promised! But there, neighbors, you have the whole
business,--and so do just as you like,--I leave it wi' you."

Johnny Darbyshire stepped down from the bar, and disappeared in the
crowd. There was a deep silence in the court, and the very jury were
seen dashing some drops from their eyes. They appeared to look up to the
judge as if they were ready to give in at once their verdict, and nobody
could doubt for which party; but at this moment the counsel for the
plaintiff arose, and said:--

"Gentlemen of the jury,--you know the old saying--'He that pleads his
own cause has a fool for his client.' We cannot say that the proverb has
held good in this case. The defendant has proved himself no fool. Never
in my life have I listened to the pleadings of an opponent with deeper
anxiety. Nature and the awful chances of life have made the defendant in
this case more than eloquent. For a moment I actually trembled for the
cause of my client,--but it was for a moment only. I should have been
something less than human if I had not, like every person in this court,
been strangely affected by the singular appeal of the singular man who
has just addressed you; but I should have been something less than a
good lawyer if I did not again revert confidently to those facts which
were in the possession of my witnesses now waiting to be heard. Had this
been the only instance in which the defendant had broken his
engagement, and mounted this mare, I should in my own mind have flung
off all hope of a verdict from you. God and nature would have been too
strong for me in your hearts; but, fortunately for my client, it is not
so. I will s