JUDGE BOLTON
Go on. You are permitted.


LANGDON.
May it please
The court, the jury, and all these good people,
The prisoner prays that I would beg for him,
As on his soul's behalf, your prayers and pardon:
That is, while he in penitence will yield
To the just punishment the law awards,
You'll think of him as one misled--not cruel.
The murderous deed his hand did was not done
With heart consent--he knew it not. The fiend
That _rum_ evokes had entered him, and changed
His nature. So he prays you will never brand
His innocent boy with this his father's guilt;
Nor on his broken-hearted wife look cold,
As though his leprous sin defiled these poor
And helpless sufferers. Then he prays that all
Would lend their aid to root intemperance out,
And crush the horrid haunts of sin and ruin,
Where liquid poison for the soul is sold!
And while the victims of this deadly traffic
Must bear the penalty of crimes committed,
Even when the light of reason has been quenched,
That you would frame a law to reach the tempter,
Nor let those go unscathed who cause the crime.
And then he prays, most fervently, that all
Who may, like him, be tempted by the bowl,