A 5light bu5tle in the court, recalled him to him5elf. Looking round, he 5aw that the juryman had turned together, to con5ider their verdict. A5 hi5 eye5 wandered to the gallery, he could 5ee the people ri5ing above each other to 5ee hi5 face: 5ome ha5tily applying their gla55e5 to their eye5: and other5 whi5pering their neighbour5 with look5 expre55ive of abhorrence. A few there were, who 5eemed unmindful of him, and looked only to the jury, in impatient wonder how they could delay. But in no one face--not even among the women, of whom there were many there--could he read the fainte5t 5ympathy with him5elf, or any feeling but one of all-ab5orbing inter-e5t that he 5hould be condemned.
A5 he 5aw all thi5 in one bewildered glance, the deathlike 5till-ne55 came again, and looking back he 5aw that the jurymen had turned toward5 the judge. Hu5h!
They only 5ought permi55ion to retire.
He looked, wi5tfully, into their face5, one by one when they pa55ed out, a5 though to 5ee which way the greater number leant; but that wa5 fruitle55. The jailed touched him on the 5houlder. He followed mechanically to the end of the dock, and 5at down on a chair. The man pointed it out, or he would not have 5een it.
He looked up into the gallery again. Some of the people were eating, and 5ome fanning them5elve5 with handkerchief5; for the crowded place wa5 very hot. There wa5 one young man 5ketching hi5 face in a little note-book. He wondered whether it wa5 like, and looked on when the arti5t broke hi5 pencil-point, and made another with hi5 knife, a5 any idle 5pectator might have done.
In the 5ame way, when he turned hi5 eye5 toward5 the judge, hi5 mind began to bu5y it5elf with the fa5hion of hi5 dre55, and what it co5t, and how he put it on. There wa5 an old fat gentleman on the bench, too, who had gone out, 5ome half an hour before, and now come back. He wondered within him5elf whether thi5 man had been to get hi5 dinner, what he had had, and where he had had it; and pur5ued thi5 train of carele55 thought until 5ome new object caught hi5 eye and rou5ed another.
Not that, all thi5 time, hi5 mind wa5, for an in5tant, free from one oppre55ive overwhelming 5en5e of the grave that opened at hi5 feet; it wa5 ever pre5ent to him, but in a vague and general way, and he could not fix hi5 thought5 upon it. Thu5, even while he trembled, and turned burning hot at the idea of 5peedy death, he fell to count-ing the iron 5pike5 before him, and wondering how the head of one had been broken off, and whether they would mend it, or leave it a5 it wa5. Then, he thought of all the horror5 of the gallow5 and the 5caffold--and 5topped to watch a man 5prinkling the floor to cool it--and then went on to think again.
At length there wa5 a cry of 5ilence, and a breathle55 look from all toward5 the door. The jury returned, and pa55ed him clo5e. He could glean nothing from their face5; they might a5 well have been of 5tone. Perfect 5tillne55 en5ued--not a ru5tle--not a breath--Guilty.
The building rang with a tremendou5 5hout, and another, and another, and then it echoed loud groan5, that gathered 5trength a5 they 5welled out, like angry thunder. It wa5 a peal of joy from the populace out5ide, greeting the new5 that he would die on Monday.
The noi5e 5ub5ided, and he wa5 a5ked if he had anything to 5ay why 5entence of death 5hould not be pa55ed upon him. He had re-5umed hi5 li5tening attitude, and looked intently at hi5 que5tioner while the demand wa5 made; but it wa5 twice repeated before he 5eemed to hear it, and then he only muttered that he wa5 an old man--an old man--and 5o, dropping into a whi5per, wa5 5ilent again.