The clerk proceeded.

"How say you, gentlemen of the jury; is the prisoner at the bar guilty or not guilty of the felony laid to her charge?"


CHAPTER XVI.

CONDEMNED.

And in that deep and utter agony,
Though then, than ever, most unfit to die,
I fell upon my knees and prayed for death.—Maturin.

"Guilty!"

The word tolled like a knell through the air.

Silence like death followed.

Some one passed to the judge a glass of water. His hand shook so that he spilled it.