“I tell you I know. For I have seen. There are aged heads bent low by misfortune—there are little children, there is a wife—young and fair and red-lipped. Do you condemn them to hunger—to cold—to slow death—these, huddled together, waiting—waiting—in the long gray polar night—for your word of fate, or do you send to them life and hope and joy? I ask you, before God, what message do you send? They are in your keeping as irrevocably as he is!”
VII
TO A HIGHER TRIBUNAL
Counsel for the prisoner sits down overcome by his own evocation of emotion. The more somnolent jurors scowl at him. He has made them uncomfortable. The court, now having control of the matter, hastens the adjournment.
“Gentlemen, you will find the prisoner not guilty of assaulting an officer. It is not fully proven. As to the charge of larceny, if you find that he took the watch out of the possession of the prosecutor, as he seems to think, he is guilty, and I instruct you to find him so. Otherwise, acquit him. If you are in doubt, acquit him. You have been told that there is no evidence of the larceny. That is for you, not counsel, to say.”
The jury, thinking from this that it is not much of a case, consult a moment, and are ready with their verdict—while the court taps the bench impatiently with the gilt menu. The crier asks for the verdict:
“Gentlemen of the jury, how say you? Is the prisoner at the bar guilty or not guilty?”
“Guilty, with a recommendation to the mercy of the court,” answers the foreman, yawning.
John Forrest rises to his feet, not knowing, in his confusion, what he ought to do.
“If the court pleases,” he begins, “I had expected another verdict. But since—”
“Your duty is done, sir,” smiles the chilly court, “and well done. I congratulate you, sir.” Then he turns to the jury. “Gentlemen, I cannot pass your recommendation to mercy lightly. I shall not forget it. It is better that ten guilty men escape than that one suffer innocently. I am now in a trifle of a hurry. I shall suspend sentence until I can think your recommendation well over. Crier, adjourn the court.”