Sybil was conducted into the sheriff's room, where refreshments were provided by that kind-hearted officer for herself and her friends, and where everything possible was done and said to support her under the terrible ordeal of her trial. Being still under bail, as she would be to the end of her trial, she was then permitted to return home with her friends for the night.
One little touching event must be recorded here, as it showed the thoughtful tenderness of her nature. Even in the midst of her anguish of anxiety in regard to the awful issues in the result of this trial, she remembered baby Cro' and his small interests; and she stopped in the village to procure for him that "something good" which she had promised.
But to do the orphan justice, he was gladder to see Sybil than to get what she brought him.
Miss Tabby caught her in her arms, and wept over her.
Raphael did not weep, nor even speak; but he clasped her hands, and looked at her with a silent grief more eloquent that words or tears. It was a period of agony to all concerned; and Sybil was indebted to opium for all the sleep she got that night.
'Tis not ever The justice and the truth o' th' question carries The due o' th' verdict with it.--SHAKESPEARE.
At an early hour the next morning the court was opened, the Judges resumed their seats, and the accused was conducted back to her place.
I shall not even attempt to give so much as an epitome of his speech. I should never be able to do justice to the logic, eloquence, pathos, and power of his oratory. I shall only indicate that the points upon which he dwelt most were, the magnanimous nature of his client, which rendered her utterly incapable of committing the atrocious crime with which she stood charged; the fatal fallibility of circumstantial evidence, which he illustrated by direct reference to many recorded cases, well-known to the legal profession, in which parties had been convicted and executed, under the strongest possible circumstantial evidence, and had afterwards been discovered to have been guiltless; the facility with which a murderer might have concealed himself in that bedroom occupied by the deceased on the night of the murder, have eluded the search of the sleepy nurse, and after committing his crime, being frightened by the screams of his awakened victim, should have escaped through the window and slammed the shutter to, from the outside, when it would fasten itself with its spring bolt; the perfect naturalness of the circumstance that the accused, on hearing her guest scream, should have flown down those communicating stairs to her assistance, and should have drawn from her wounded bosom the dagger left there by the flying murderer. This, and much more than can even be touched upon here, he said, and then proceeded to call witnesses for the defence.