"Have you finished?"
"Finished what?" he cried, in a startling tone. "Finished what?—Finished pleading for my life? Yes, I have, for I know that they have made up their minds to murder me. I have no witnesses—they are all in the grave now. That woman, Lovett, who is dead, you tell me—I cannot say if she be dead or not, she is hard to kill—that woman could exculpate me; but, as I say, my witnesses are in the grave, and there is no truth in spirits visiting this world again, or she and the man you say I murdered would appear here, and yell in your ears, all of you, that I did not do it."
The judge sat quite patiently. He was evidently resolved to hear quietly what Todd chose to say. It could but occupy a little more time; and as his fate was fixed, it did not matter.
"If you have finished your observations, prisoner," said the judge, "it will now be my duty to proceed to pass upon you the sentence of the law."
"But I have said I did not do it. I am not guilty."
"It does not lie within my power to decide that question. The jury have found you guilty, and all I have to do in my capacity here is, in accordance with that finding, to sentence you according to law. If you could have stated any legal impediment to the passing of the sentence, it would have had effect; but now it is my painful duty to—"
"Hold! I will, and can state a legal impediment."
"What is it?"
"I am mad!"
The judge opened his eyes rather wider than usual at this statement, and the jury looked at each other in wonder and amazement. Among the spectators there was a general movement, too, of surprise.