“Why, my lord, only this—­that he was as innocent of the crime for which you hanged him as the child yet unborn!  I did the deed!  I put the watch in his trunk!” And to the unutterable horror of the entire court he related the whole particulars of the transaction, the origin of his grudge against Harvey, and his delight on bringing him to the gallows.

“Inhuman, execrable villain!” gasped the judge in extreme excitement.

“Cleverly done, though!  Was it not, my lord?” rejoined the ruffian with bitter irony.  “The evidence, you know, was irresistible; the crime as clear as the sun at noonday; and if in such plain cases, the just and necessary law was not enforced, society would be dissolved, and there would be no security for property!  These were your words, I think.  How on that occasion I admired your lordship’s judgment and eloquence!  Society would be dissolved if an innocent man were not hanged!  Ha!—­ha!—­ha!  Capital!—­capital!” shouted the ferocious felon with demoniac glee, as he marked the effect of his words on the countenance of the judge.

“Remove the prisoner!” cried the sheriff.  An officer was about to do so; but the judge motioned him to desist.  His lordship’s features worked convulsively.  He seemed striving to speak, but the words would not come.

“I suppose, my lord,” continued Cartwright in low and hissing tones, as the shadow of unutterable despair grew and settled on his face—­“I suppose you know that his wife destroyed herself.  The coroner’s jury said she had fallen accidentally into the water, I know better.  She drowned herself under the agonies of a broken heart!  I saw her corpse, with the dead baby in its arms; and then I felt, knew, that I was lost!  Lost, doomed to everlasting perdition!  But, my lord,”—­and here the wretch broke into a howl wild and terrific—­“we shall go down together—­down to where your deserts are known.  A—­h—­h! that pinches you, does it?  Hound of a judge! legal murderer! coward!  I spurn and spit upon thee!” The rest of the appalling objurgation was inarticulate, as the monster, foaming and sputtering, was dragged by an officer from the dock.

Judge A ——­ had fallen forwards on his face, fainting and speechless with the violence of his emotions.  The black cap had dropped from his brow.  His hands were stretched out across the bench, and various members of the bar rushed to his assistance.  The court broke up in frightful commotion.

Two days afterwards the county paper had the following announcement:—­

“Died at the Royal Hotel, ------, on the 27th instant, Judge A ----, from
an access of fever supervening upon a disorder from which he had
imperfectly recovered.”

The prophecy was fulfilled!

THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT.