The man was the woman’s husband, the child their darling boy,
And they waited the dreadful sentence that would two fond lives destroy.
The sunshine streamed through the window and fell on the judge’s face,[235]
While the song of a bird in a tree-top[236] seemed harsh and out of place;
Then the sunlight merged into shadow,[237] and the bird had ceased to sing—
So quick are the fitful changes that fate and nature bring.
The ordeal soon was over, and the woman stood alone,
Alone with her tender offspring, with a heart that weighed like stone.
The convict’s tear still glistened like a gem on her pallid cheek,
And that tear-drop mutely told her what his white lips could not speak.