“It was very clear to my mind that Mr. Rockland was perfectly indifferent as to the material being collected on the jury, and it was also evident that he regarded the entire proceeding as a mere matter of form to be passed over in order to reach the inevitable verdict of guilty against the defendant.
“Out of a venire of three hundred men, they succeeded in securing a jury of brainless idiots, and if any man had been bound by contract to furnish a dozen fit subjects for a first-class lunatic asylum, he could have used that jury as a legal tender for the debt.
“While Mr. Quillet was reading the bill of indictment, Viola fixed her beautiful eyes on him, and listened attentively, and I could see the regular rise and fall of her bosom, while her breathing was as calm and gentle as that of a slumbering infant; not a muscle of her face moved, nor did any evidence of fear or excitement manifest itself on her features. Lottie’s hands trembled slightly as she pulled the leaves from a rose, and let them fall at her feet; no other signs of emotion appeared.
“The spectators and lawyers were listening in breathless silence, anxious to hear what sort of a plea the defendant was going to put in. Absolute quiet reigned throughout the spacious room, only broken by the solemn tones of Mr. Quillet’s deep bass voice, as he read the awful charge of willful and malicious murder against the beautiful prisoner. When he came to the last word in the bill he turned from the jury, and fixing his keen black eyes on Viola’s face, paused for a moment, as the prisoner rose to her feet and looked firmly into the face of the attorney-general. It was not a bold, brazen-faced, defiant stare, but it was such a calm, dignified, charming look as I suppose the angels in Heaven are wont to cast on each other.
“‘Miss Viola Bramlett,’ said Quillet, as he bent forward, ‘are you guilty or not guilty?’
“‘Not guilty!’ was answered in a firm but sweet tone.
“Then commenced a tremendous scramble among the spectators seeking to secure eligible seats, so as to hear the evidence. Flipout began to put the pressure on his nose, while the dark frown re-appeared on his brow.
“‘Mr. Sheriff,’ exclaimed the court, ‘if you do not instantly put an end to this confusion the court will impose a heavy fine on you; order those people to sit down, and station a deputy at each end of the aisle with instructions to keep it clear, and report the names of persons who disturb the business of the court. Have your witnesses called, Mr. Quillet, and proceed with the case.’
“As the vast crowd of witnesses began to move to the front, I was reminded of Byron’s ‘Vision of Judgment,’ wherein he gives such a sublime history of the trial of George III. When Saint Peter called on Satan for his witnesses, the King of darkness waved his hand down toward hell, when up rose a black cloud of lost souls, almost as numerous as the legions of locusts that infested the shores of Egypt. Now I do not by any means intend to assert that the crowd of witnesses who came forward to testify against Viola Bramlett were as numerous as the countless throng that come up to offer evidence against England’s dead king, but I merely give it as my candid opinion that his Satanic Majesty would have scorned the idea of introducing into a decent court such a motley crowd of witnesses as those who appeared to swear against Miss Bramlett. I do not apply these remarks to all of them, however, for Doctors Dodson and Plaxico were of the number. I was horrified to see Mrs. Ragland step forward and array herself on the side of the State. Could it be possible that Viola’s own aunt was to be a witness for the State? I looked at Lottie to see if any evidences of alarm appeared in her face, but nothing of the sort was perceptible—all seemed calm as an unruffled lake, while the corners of her mouth were closely drawn down. Zip Dabbs appeared at the head of the long column of witnesses, and if he had held the sun in one pocket, the moon in the other, the world on his shoulder, with the final destiny of the entire human race in the palm of his hand, he could not have put on a more self-important air than he did on that occasion. Tadpoddle appeared with his little eye on duty, while he was making an ineffectual effort to imitate his illustrious leader. Miss Jemima Tadpoddle, with her tall, gaunt form looming high above ordinary women, moved deliberately toward the clerk’s desk, and kissed the Bible with a smack as the oath was administered by the clerk. Miss Clattermouth stood by the side of her tall friend, looking like a Lilliputian by the side of Gulliver, with her little mouth handsomely puckered as if she were afraid that the important facts known to her would escape before she got a chance to tell them to the jury.
“As soon as the clerk completed the task of swearing the vast number of State witnesses, the court ordered the defense to call and swear theirs.