prisoner's innocence, that to those among his audience who believed
that innocence indubitable, it seemed as if his arguments proved it,
even more triumphantly than the pleading of the counsel, as,
vibrating between hope and fear, anxiety and gratitude, they followed
him from point to point of the unhappy incident, hanging upon every
word, as though each were decisive.

When at length he ceased, and the jury retired, the breathless
stillness continued. With some, indeed, there was the relaxation of
long-strained attention, eyes unbent, and heads turned, but Flora had
to pass her arm round her little sister, to steady the child's
nervous trembling; Aubrey sat rigid and upright, the throbs of his
heart well-nigh audible; and Dr. May leant forward, and covered his
eyes with his hand; Tom, who alone dared glance to the dock, saw that
Leonard too had retired. Those were the most terrible minutes they
had ever spent in their lives; but they were minutes of hope--of hope
of relief from a burthen, becoming more intolerable with every
second's delay ere the rebound.

Long as it seemed to them, it was not in reality more than a quarter
of an hour before the jury returned, and with slow grave movements,
and serious countenances, resumed their places. Leonard was already
in his; his cheek paler, his fingers locked together, and his eyes
scanning each as they came forward, and one by one their names were
called over. His head was erect, and his bearing had something
undaunted, though intensely anxious.

The question was put by the clerk of the court, 'How find you?
Guilty or Not guilty?'