A haughty courtier, meeting in the streets
A scholar, him thus insolently greets:
Base men to take the wall I ne’er permit;
The scholar said, I do--and gave him it.
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_For the +New-York Weekly Magazine+._
* * *
_THE SENTENCE._
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[A continuation of the +Criminal+, from page 359.]
* * *
The sun, as usual, had bedecked the east with his golden beams, and the
major part of mankind were pleased with the prospect. But the hero of
this piece had enjoyed none of its enlivening rays, since he had been
exiled from the world, until this morning: The gratings of the locks,
and opening of the doors which secured the entrance into his cell,
roused him to reflect that perhaps this was the day on which his fate
was to be decided: his conjectures were right; he was to be tried this
day by the laws of his country.
The attendants on the court had now penetrated into the place of his
confinement, and the smith was set to work in loosening his fetters.
Owing to the length of time, and their not being sufficiently large, the
skin adhered thereto; and on their being knocked off, it accompanied
them. Indeed, if there had been present one disinterested person, he
would have inferred that a barbarous punishment, formerly practiced by
eastern monarchs, had found entrance into a civilized country.
Being now freed from the galling irons, the culprit, safely guarded by
the officers of justice, was in a few minutes conducted before her
_impartial_ seat.
In due time, and in the usual form, did the stern dispenser of justice
commence the solemn interrogatory of “_Guilty, or not Guilty?_” As the
prisoner had duly weighed in his own breast the answer he was to make,
in an audible voice he replied in the negative.
----Say not, misjudging mortal, that this unfortunate being was to blame
in what he uttered, for truth dropped from his lips. True, indeed, his
hand, guided by desperation, had done the deed. Despair, that haggard
fiend, actuated every feeling; reason had deserted his breast--The man
was entirely annihilated. At this juncture his hand had perpetrated what
his heart would have abhorred to have thought on.--Call this not
sophistry, ye, who hold to the mild precepts of christianity; consider
it well, and then let unbiased reason have its full scope.
The council for the prosecution set forth in its blackest colours the
dreadful nature of the crime of murder; and concluded with assuring the
jury, that unless they brought the prisoner in guilty, they would act
contrary to every law, human and divine.
----The prisoner had no one to speak for him----
The learned Judge proceeded to give his opinion, in which it can truly
be said he acted not the _impartial_ part.
* * * * * * * * * *
A verdict was returned, agreeable to the wish of the court, which being
done, sentence was passed in usual form, not forgetting, at the close,
to entreat the compassion of the Deity. It seemed to breathe forth pity,
but it was only the semblance; and the same Judge had pronounced it
before this, times out of number.