Dilemmas of Pride, (Vol 3 of 3)

sound or movement, Lady Arden stood in the witness box, wrapped in t

ost every eye; while some of those who were themselves mothers, were mov

d disdain of the insult offered to the hitherto unsullied honour of her son, struggling with agony kindled in her eye, while her cheek was blanched, and her lips parched: and then the strong resemblance her every feature bore to those of her son! h

y. The judge, from a feeling of respect, took upon himself a considerable part of the duty of putting the necessary questions to her ladyship. He did so in the mildest and most considerate manner, and in a tone of kindly sympathy which did credit to his heart-the counsel of course assisting, and assisted himself as hitherto, by the marginal notes to his brief, supplied by Mr. Fips. These had the effect of drawing from her ladyship the purport of the confidential conversation overheard by Geoffery, which, with the remainder of Lady Arden's ev

any apprehensions of the kind till after the present accusation had been brought against himself-that in his letter, announcing the sudden death of his brother, he had ascribed it to a fit of apoplexy, and made no mention of poison under any circumstances being the supposed cause, or expressed a suspicion either of insanity or suic

ssion, and though not so full, went to prove the same points as that of Lady Arden

the stillness of the expectant court. The tones of that voice were harmony itself; they had ever been

a silent flood of tears; yet, with that self-command which dire nece

hat its ebullitions were confined to private interviews with himself. He spoke of the state of excitement under which Sir Willoughby laboured on his last return to Arden; but confessed, that to all less interested observers than himself, the manner to which he alluded was calculated to appear but the result of his brother being at the time i

into his possession, and his reasons for removing and securing the former;-of his having subsequently conceale

luntarily at the vague

bour, "are not to get off for committing

hts of a season of sudden affliction, such as that to which he alluded, could be defined) a desire to conceal the suicide, which he feared had been committed; and that the same mot

judge him harshly, but so many ingenious subterfuges, invented after accusation, to meet each point, and created, accordingly, in their minds, a strong sense of

der of the deceased, confided to any person his alleged belief, that a suicide had been commit

ubject in conversation

idence for the defence was

conversation of th

ld call to mind Sir Alfred having made allu

ate minutely what had

ade some attempts to calm his agitation, but without success; when, however, he was about to retire, Sir Alfred had looked up suddenly, and asked him if the Doctor had not said, that symptoms similar to those which had attended the

ing more

ich he could ch

hispered Fips, with a grin of tri

had expressed a fear of Christian burial being denied, and his mother's affliction increased, should the suicide be suspected. Thus mutilated, the evidence of t

ce; and on receiving a negative to both questions, looked disappointed. After a short pause, he commenced

ary, though at his lordship's desk only, for the sake of referring to written not

iking, and, in particular, the flash of his eye, which was very remarkable; his manner, too, was impressive, the tones of his voice fine, and his diction clear and forcible; his expositions on points of law, were luminous even to the humblest apprehensions. He told the jury, that on such points it was his business to dictate to them, and theirs to be implicitly guided by his dictum. To decide what facts were proved in

possibility be otherwise. In the present instance, he was sorry to say, that the painful duty of his office compelled him to point out to their attention, that the chain of circumstantial evidence seemed more than commonly strong and connected, while every link was supported by the testimony of a host of, at least credible, and in many instances more than credible, since they were unwilling witnesses: still, it was for them to decide whether all the circumstances did agree, and whether the

son. It had been proved in evidence, that Sir Willoughby had been in perfect health, at and for some time after dinner-that he had supped in company with the prisoner only-that the remains of arsenic had been found in one of the glasses-that Sir Willoughby had died immediately after supper-that his death had been occasioned by arsenic-that the prisoner had attempted to rinse the glass in which the remains of arsenic were afterwards found-that a packet containing arsenic had lain on a certain morning, in a certain apartment-that the prisoner had been seen to come from that apartment alone, in the afternoon; that it was not an apartment usually inhabited or visited by the prisoner-that there was evidence the prisoner was aware the packet of arsenic lay there-that the said packet was missed the next morning, from the said apartment-that the said packet was subsequently found in a locked escritoire of the prisoner's, to which he alone had access-that a torn piece of paper, visibly a portion of the outer cover of

ngs. The forms of the jurymen, but dimly discerned, leaning over with painful eagerness, to catch, as it were, the very thoughts of the judge; their eyes glancing in the distant light, as they removed them, from time to time, from his countenance, to look round on each other; and when he ceased speaking, the pause that followed-a

rd pronounced

eard; and during the moment, the judge was preparing to pronounce the awful sentence of the law, a mov