manifestly delusive than in the present, bearing at first an imposing
and formidable aspect, but on examination, confuted in every detail.
Most assuredly,' continued the counsel, his voice becoming doubly
earnest, 'while there is even the possibility of innocence, it
becomes incumbent on you, gentlemen of the jury, to consider well the
fearful consequences of a decision in a matter of life or death--a
decision for which there can be no reversal. The facts that have
come to light are manifestly incomplete. Another link in the chain
has yet to be added; and when it shall come forth, how will it be if
it should establish the guiltlessness of the prisoner too late? Too
late, when a young life of high promise, and linked by close family
ties, and by bonds of ardent friendship with so many, has been
quenched in shame and disgrace, for a crime to which he may be an
utter stranger.

'The extinction of the light in that upper window was the sign for
darkness and horror to descend on the mill! Here is the light of
life still burning, but a breath of yours can extinguish it in utter
gloom, and then who may rekindle it! Nay, the revelation of events
that would make the transactions of that fatal night clear as the
noonday, would never avail to rekindle the lamp, that may yet, I
trust, shine forth to the world--the clearer, it may be, from the
unmerited imputations, which it has been my part to combat, and of
which his entire life is a confutation.'

Mrs. Pugh was sobbing under her veil; Gertrude felt the cause won.
Tom noiselessly clapped the orator behind his brother's back, and
nodded his approval to his father. Even Leonard lifted up his face,
and shot across a look, as if he felt deliverance near after the
weary day, that seemed to have been a lifetime already, though the