“Gentlemen, this case has been tried by a higher court than this. It still remains for us to humbly put on record man’s verdict as made plain by Him who sees all things and weighs all hearts. Do you find the prisoner guilty, or not guilty?”
“Not guilty!” came the quick, sharp response.
A roar burst forth from the hot, parched throats of the excited crowd. Two or three men standing near the dock made a rush for it; in an instant they were followed by a hundred others, and before the police could interfere, Faradeane was torn out of the box and carried through the corridor and into the streets—a free man!
A scene of the wildest confusion followed. Men—ay, and women, too—shouted and danced, as if they had suddenly gone mad. It was in vain for the police to attempt to clear the streets, in which the crowd seemed to grow thicker every moment. Amid the intense excitement, the Grange carriage was seen to be making its way slowly through the throng, and the mob instantly surrounded it, and cheered for the squire and Olivia.
At last they set Faradeane down on the steps of the marketplace, and permitted him to speak.
At first he seemed unable to speak, and stood looking at the crowd with his grave eyes moist with emotion; then he said:
“I thank you—I thank you with all my heart for your kindness. I think that many of you believed in my innocence——”
“All of us! All of us!” some one shouted. “You’re a nobleman all round, that’s what you are, my lord!”
“What I have done, any man placed as I was would have done—yes, every man worthy the name of man. And now will you go home quietly, my friends, remembering how dark and heavy a trouble hangs over those both you and I—love?”
“That we will; we’ll do anything you ask us, my lord,” shouted the same man, and the crowd began slowly and reluctantly to melt away.