of his consummate cowardice.  Many eyes were now turned upon him; for we need scarcely say that his part of a case which created so much romantic interest as the conviction of Connor O’Donovan, and the history it developed of the mutual affection which subsisted between him and Una, was by no means forgotten.  And even if it had, his present appearance and position would, by the force of ordinary association, have revived it in the minds of any then present.

Deprived of all moral firmness, as he appeared to be, on entering the dock, yet, as the trial advanced, it was evident that his heart and spirits were sinking still more and more, until at length his face, in consequence of its ghastliness, and the involuntary hanging of his eyebrows, indicated scarcely any other expression than that of utter helplessness, or the feeble agony of a mind so miserably prostrated, as to be hardly conscious of the circumstances around him.  This was clearly obvious when the verdict of “guilty” was uttered in the dead silence which prevailed through the court.  No sooner were the words pronounced than he looked about him wildly, and exclaimed—­

“What’s that? what’s that?  Oh, God—­; sweet Jasus! sweet Jasus!”

His lips then moved for a little, and he was observed to mark his breast prvately with the sign of the cross; but in such a manner as to prove that the act was dictated by the unsettled incoherency of terror, and not by the promptings of piety or religion.

The judge now put on the black cap, and! was about to pronounce the fatal sentence, when the prisoner shrieked out, “Oh, my Lord—­my Lord, spare me!  Oh, spare me, for I’m not fit to die.  I daren’t meet God!”

“Alas!” exclaimed the judge, “unhappy man, it is too often true, that those who are least prepared to meet their Almighty Judge, are also the least reckless in the perpetration of those crimes which are certain, ere long, to hurry them into His presence.  You find now, that whether as regards this life or the next, he who observes the laws of his religion and his country, is the only man who can be considered, in the true sense of the word, his own friend; and there is this advantage in his conduct, that, whilst he is the best friend to himself, it necessarily follows that he must be a benefactor in the same degree to society at large.  To such a man the laws are a security, and not, as in your case, and in that of those who resemble you, a punishment.  It is the wicked only who hate the laws, because they are conscious of having provoked their justice.  In asking me to spare your life, you are aware that you ask me for that which I cannot grant.  There is nothing at all in your case to entitle you to mercy; and if, by the life you have led, you feel that you are unfit to die, it is clear upon your own principles, and by the use you have made of life, that you are unfit to live.”