“May He dispose the hearts of these twelve men, on whom the fate of this youth now hangs, so that they shall show, that like Himself they are lovers of mercy.”

And Mr. W——­ sat down and covered his face with his handkerchief.  The hope and expectation of acquittal now were very strong.

And now slowly rose the counsel for the prosecution.  Mr. G——­ was a tall thin man, of a grave and stern expression of countenance; his hair was of an iron-gray, and his piercing gray eye shone from under his shaggy eye-brows like a spark of fire.  It was the only thing that looked like life about him; and when he first rose he began to speak in a slow, distinct, unimpassioned manner, and without the least attempt at eloquence.

“He had intended,” he said, “to call a few more witnesses, but he found it was utterly unnecessary; those already called had said all he cared to hear; indeed, he had been much surprised to hear testimony on the side of the prisoner which he should have thought by right his own.  No one attempts to deny the fact of the killing, and that the deed was done by the hand of the prisoner.  The question for us to decide is, was it murder? was it man-slaughter? or was it nothing at all? for to that point my learned adversary evidently wishes to conduct us.”

“The young man it appears, by the testimony of friends and school-mates, has always been of a peculiarly quick and fiery temper; so much so it seems, that a playful allusion, or what is commonly called a teazing expression, could not be indulged in at his expense but his companion was instantly felled to the ground.  And was he the one to arm himself with bowie-knife or revolver?  Should one who was perfectly conscious that he had not the slightest control over his temper, keep about him a murderous weapon ready to do its deed of death upon any friend who might unwittingly, in an hour of revelry, touch upon some sore spot?”

“As soon would I approach a keg of gun-powder with a lighted candle in my hand, as have aught to do with one so fiery and so armed for destruction.  It has been said that it is the custom for young men in some of our colleges to go thus armed; the more need of signal vengeance upon the work of death they do.  Gentlemen of the jury, if this practice is not loudly rebuked we shall have work of this kind accumulating rapidly on our hands.”

“’It was done in the heat of frenzied passion, and so the prisoner must go unpunished.’  My learned friend argued not so, when he appeared in this place against the murder Wiley; poor, ignorant, and half-witted; who with his eyes starting from his head with starvation, entered a farmer’s house, and in the extremity of his suffering demanded bread.  And on being told by the woman of the house to take himself off to the nearest tavern and get bread, caught up a carving knife and stabbed her to the heart, seized a piece of bread, and fled from the house.  He had a fiendish temper too; it was rendered fiercer by starvation; and when asked why he did the dreadful deed, he said he never could have dragged himself on three miles to the nearest tavern, and he had no money to buy bread when he got there.  He must die anyway, and it might as well be on the gallows as by the road-side.”