YOUNG BOLTON. 
I hope you will be gratified.  Are all—­
All well at home?

PROFESSOR OLNEY (smiling). 
I should not else be out. 
And Isabelle will hear the recitations.

              YOUNG BOLTON (aside). 

I’ll go, and see, and help her.  Not to conquer
As Caesar boasted—­she has conquered me. 
I’ll go and yield myself her captive.

          
                                              [Exit YOUNG BOLTON.

CRIER OF THE COURT. 
Silence!

CLERK OF THE COURT. 
Gentlemen of the jury, are you ready
To give the verdict now?

FOREMAN. 
We are ready.

                CLERK OF THE COURT. 

Prisoner, stand up and look upon the jury. 
Jury, if and up and look upon the prisoner. 
The man you now behold has had his trial
Before you for a crime.  What is the verdict? 
Is he, the prisoner, guilty or not guilty?

FOREMAN (reading the verdict).
Guilty of murder in the second degree.

[A deep silence, broken only by the sobs of prisoner’s wife and sister.  Prisoner sinks down on his seat.  CLERK OF THE COURT records the sentence.

                CLERK OF THE COURT. 

Gentlemen of the jury, listen to
The verdict as recorded by the court
The prisoner at the bar is therein found
For crime committed—­and that has been proven—­
Guilty of murder in the second degree. 
So say you, Mister Foreman?  So say all?

FOREMAN AND JURY. 
All (bowing).

                  JUDGE BOLTON. 
  A righteous verdict this, and yet a sad one
  A fellow-being banished from our midst,
  To pass his days in utter loneliness
  Prisoner you’ve heard the verdict.  Have you aught
  To say why sentence should not now be passed? 
  Speak; you may have the opportunity.

LANGDON counsel for the prisoner, confers
with him then addresses the JUDGE.

                    LANGDON

He cannot speak; his heart o’erpowers his tongue;
The tide of grief seeps all his strength away,
As rising waters drown the sinking boat. 
And he entreats that I would say for him,
The court permitting me, a few last words.

JUDGE BOLTON
Go on.  You are permitted.

LANGDON. 
May it please
The court, the jury, and all these good people,
The prisoner prays that I would beg for him,
As on his soul’s behalf, your prayers and pardon: 
That is, while he in penitence will yield
To the just punishment the law awards,
You’ll think of him as one misled—­not cruel. 
The murderous deed his hand did was not done
With heart consent—­he knew it not.  The fiend
That rum evokes had entered him, and changed
His nature.  So he prays you will never brand