impartial citizens a treason to your country. I dismiss you to the grave
consideration of the important case you have heard; and I trust that He
to whom all hearts are open and all secrets are known, will grant you the
temper and the judgment to form a right decision!"

There was in the majestic aspect and thrilling voice of Brandon something
which made the commonest form of words solemn and impressive; and the
hypocrite, aware of this felicity of manner, generally, as now, added
weight to his concluding words by a religious allusion or a Scriptural
phraseology. He ceased; and the jury, recovering the effect of his
adjuration, consulted for a moment among themselves. The foreman then,
addressing the court on behalf of his fellow-jurors, requested leave to
retire for deliberation. An attendant bailiff being sworn in, we read in
the journals of the day, which noted the divisions of time with that
customary scrupulosity rendered terrible by the reflection how soon all
time and seasons may perish for the hero of the scene, that "it was at
twenty-five minutes to two that the jury withdrew."

Perhaps in the whole course of a criminal trial there is no period more
awful than that occupied by the deliberation of the jury. In the present
case the prisoner, as if acutely sensible of his situation, remained in
the rear of the dock, and buried his face in his hands. They who stood
near him observed, however, that his breast did not seem to swell with
the convulsive emotion customary to persons in his state, and that not
even a sigh or agitated movement escaped him. The jury had been absent
about twenty minutes, when a confused noise was heard in the court. The
face of the judge turned in commanding severity towards the quarter
whence it proceeded. He perceived a man of a coarse garb and mean
appearance endeavouring rudely and violently to push his way through the
crowd towards the bench, and at the same instant he saw one of the