Persevere—persevere—you may say what you please now, said the lawyer, shuffling his papers about with both hands, chuckling in his sleeve, and whispering without appearing to whisper.—Have your own way now ... they like to hear the lawyers and the judges, and the law cut up; it’s a new thing to hear in such a place ... fire away, fire away ... you see how they enjoy it ... you’ve got us on the hip now ... fire away.
If a criminal be arraigned on a charge that may affect his life or character, limb or property, or if a witness be to be sworn, or the oath administered, ... I care not how ... I care not why ... if you will have oaths ... ye should order silence to be proclaimed by the sound of trumpet.
—Pho! pho!
I would have a great bell, one so large that it might be heard far and wide over the whole town—I would have this tolled on the day of condemnation, if that condemnation were to death. And if it must be—if you will have it so—if you will that a man be put to death by the rope or the axe, on the scaffold or over an open grave—as the poor soldier dies—I would have him perish at night—in the dead of midnight—and all the town should wake up at the tolling of that heavy bell, or at the roar of cannon, with a knowledge that a fellow-creature had that instant passed away from the earth forever—just gone—that very instant—before the Everlasting Judge of the quick and the dead—that while they were holding their breath and before they could breathe again—he would receive the sentence from which there would be no appeal throughout all the countless ages of eternity.
Very fair—very fair—I see the foreman of the jury shudder—keep him to it—
I love theory, but I love practice better—
Zounds! what a plunge!
—Bear with me, I beseech you. I had come to a conclusion years and years ago, before I went away into the far parts of the earth, Judges and Elders, that where human life is thought much of, there liberty is; and that just in proportion to the value of human life are the number and variety, the greatness and the strength of the safe-guards forms and ceremonies, which go to make it secure, if not altogether inaccessible.
Very fair—stick to the foreman—keep your eye on his face—don’t take it off, and you’ll be sure of the jury.
I can hardly see his face now—