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gest, and alert in procuring. He had even the delicacy to withdraw to the farthest corner of the room, so as to render nis official attendance upon them as little intrusive as possible, when Effie was composed enough again to resume her conference with her

sister.

The prisoner once more, in the most earnest and broken tones, conjured Jeanie to tell her the particulars of the conference with Robertson, and Jeanie felt it was impossible to refuse her this gratification. Do ye mind," she said, "Effie, when ye were in the fever before we left Woodend, and how angry your mother, that's now in a better place, was wi me for giving ye milk and water to drink, because ye grat for it? Ye were a bairn then, and ye are a woman now, and should ken better than ask what canna but hurt you-But come weal or wo, I canna refuse you ony thing that ye ask me wi' the tear in your ee.'

"I must needs say," interposed Ratcliffe, “that n'e d-d hard, when three words of your mouth would give the girl the chance to nick Moll Blood, that you make such scrupling about rapping to them. D-n me, if they would take me, if I would not rap to all Whatd'yecallum's-Hyssop's Fables, for her life-1 am us'd to't, b-t me, for less matters. Why, I have smacked calf-skint fifty times in England for a keg of brandy."

"Never speak mair o't," said the prisoner. "It's just as weel as it is-and gude day, sister; ye keep Mr. Ratcliffe waiting on-Ye'll come back and see me, I reckon, before" -here she stopped, and be. came deadly pale.

"And are we to part in this way," said Jeanie, "and you in sie deadly peril? O, Effie, look but up, and say what ye wad hae me do, and I could find in my heart amaist to say that I wad do't."

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No, Jeanie," replied her sister, after an effort, "I Again Effie threw herself into her arms, and kissed am better minded now. At my best, I was never her cheek and forehead, murmuring, "O, if ye kend half sae gude as ye were, and what for suld you begin how lang it is since I heard his name mentioned!--to mak yoursell waur to save me, now that I am no if ye but kend how muckle good it does me but to worth saving? God knows, that in my sober mind, ken ony thing o' him, that's like goodness or kind- I wadna wuss ony living creature to do a wrang thing ness, ye wadna wonder that I wish to hear of him!" to save my life. I might have fled frae this tolbooth Jeanie sighed, and commenced her narrative of all on that awfu' night wi' ane wad hae carried me through that had passed betwixt Robertson and her, making the warld, and friended me, and fended for me. But it as brief as possible. Effie listened in breathless I said to them, let life gang when gude fame is gane anxiety, holding her sister's hand in her's, and keep-before it. But this lang imprisonment has broken ing her eye fixed upon her face, as if devouring every my spirit, and I am whiles sair left to mysell, and word she uttered. The interjections of "Poor fel- then wad gie the Indian mines of gold and diamonds, low," "Poor George," which escaped in whispers, just for life and breath-for I think, Jennie, I have and betwixt sighs, were the only sounds with which such roving fits as I used to hae in the fever; but, she interrupted the story. When it was finished she instead of the fiery cen, and wolves, and Widow Butmade a long pause. ler's bullseg, that I used to see spieling up on my bed, I am thinking now about a high, black gibbet, and me standing up, and such seas of faces all looking up at poor Effie Deans, and asking if it be her that George Robertson used to call the Lily of St. Leonard's. And then they stretch out their faces, and make mouths, and girn at me, and which ever way I look, I see a face laughing like Meg Murdockson, when she tauld me I had seen the last of my wean. God preserve us, Jeanie, that carline has a fearsome face!" She clapped her hands before her eyes as she uttered this exclamation, as if to secure herself against seeing the fearful object she had alluded to.

"And this was his advice?" were the first words she uttered.

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"Just sic as I hae tell'd ye," replied her sister. And he wanted you to say something to yon folks, that wad save my young life?"

"He wanted," answered Jeanie, "that I suld be mansworn."

"And you tauld him," said Effie, "that ye wadna hear o' coming between me and the death that I am to die, and me no aughteen year auld yet?"

"I told him," replied Jeanie, who now trembled at the turn which her sister's reflections seemed about to take, "that I daured na swear to an untruth" "And what d'ye ca' an untruth ?" said Effie, again showing a touch of her former spirit-"Ye are muckle to blame, lass, if ye think a mother would, or could, murder her ain bairn-Murder?-I wad hae laid down my life just to see a blink o' its ee!"

"I do believe," said Jeanie, "that ye are as innocent of sic a purpose as the new-born babe itsell."

"I am glad ye do me that justice," said Effie, haughtily; "it's whiles the faut of very good folk like you, Jeanie, that they think a' the rest of the warld are as bad as the warst temptations can make them."

I dinna deserve this frae ye, Effie," said her sister, sobbing, and feeling at once the injustice of the reproach, and compassion for the state of mind which dictated it.

"Maybe no, sister," said Effie. "But ye are angry because I love Robertson-How can I help loving him, that loves me better than body and soul baith? Here he put his life in a niffer, to break the prison to let me out; and sure am I, had it stood wi' him as it stands wi' you"-Here she paused and was silent. "O, if it stude wi' me to save ye wi' risk of my life!" said Jeanie. *

Ay, lass," said her sister, "that's lightly said, but no sae lightly credited, frae ane that winna ware a word for me; and if it be a wrang word, ye'll hae time eneugh to repent o't."

"But that word is a grievous sin, and it's a deeper offence when it's a sin wilfully and presumptuously committed."

Weel, weel, Jeanie," said Effie, "I mind a' about he sins o' presumption in the questions-we'll speak nae mair about this matter, and ye may save your breath to say your carritch; and for me, I'll soon hae par breath to waste on ony body."

Jeanie Deans remained with her sister for two hours, during which she endeavoured, if possible, to extract something from her that might be serviceable in her exculpation. But she had nothing to say beyond what she had declared on her first examination, with the purport of which the reader will be made acquainted in proper time and place. "They wadna believe her," she said, "and she had naething mair to tell them."

At length Ratcliffe, though reluctantly, informed the sisters that there was a necessity that they should part. "Mr. Novit," he said, "was to see the prisoner, and maybe Mr. Langtale too. Langtale likes to look at a bonny lass, whether in prison or out o' prison."

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Reluctantly, therefore, and slowly, after many a tear, and many an embrace, Jeanie retired from the apartment, and heard its jarring bolts turned upon the dear being from whom she was separated. Somewhat familiarized now even with her rude conductor. she offered him a small present in money, with a re quest he would do what he could for her sister's accommodation. To her surprise, Ratcliffe declined the fee. "I wasna bloody when I was on the pad," he said, and I winna be greedy-that is, beyond what's right and reasonable-now that I am in the lock.-Keep the siller; and for civility, your sister sall hae sic as I can bestow; but I hope you'll think better on it, and rap an oath for her-deíl a hair ill there is in it, if ye are rapping again the crown. I kend a worthy minister, as gude a man, bating the deed they deposed him for, as ever ye heard claver in a pu’șit, that rapped to a hogshead of pigtail tobacco, just for as muckle as filled his spleuchan. But maybe ye are keeping your ain counsel weel, weel, there's nae harm in that. As for your sister, I'se see that she

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gets her meat clean and warm, and I'll try to gar her he down and take a sleep after dinner, for deil a ee she'll close the night. I hae gude experience of these matters. The first night is aye the warst o't. I hae never heard o' ane that sleepit the night afore trial, but of mony a ane that sleepit as sound as a tap the night before their necks were straughted. And it's nae wonder the warst may be tholed when it's kend -Better a finger aff as aye wagging."

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To share the cruel fates' decree.-JEMMY DAWSON.

AFTER Spending the greater part of the morning in ais devotions, (for his benevolent neighbours had kindly insisted upon discharging his task of ordinary labour,) David Deans entered the apartment when the breakfast meal was prepared. His eyes were involuntarily cast down, for he was afraid to look at Jeanie, uncertain as he was whether she might feel herself at liberty, with a good conscience, to attend the Court of Justiciary that day, to give the evidence which he understood that she possessed, in order to her sister's exculpation. At length, after a minute of apprehensive hesitation, he looked at her dress to discover whether it seemed to be in her contemplation to go abroad that morning. Her apparel was neat and plain, but such as conveyed no exact intimation of her intentions to go abroad. She had exchanged her usual garb for morning labour, for one something inferior to that with which, as her best, she was wont to dress herself for church, or any more rare occasion of going into society. Her sense taught her, that it was respectful to be decent in her apparel on such an occasion, while her feelings induced her to lay aside the use of the very few and simple personal ornaments, which, on other occasions, she permitted herself to wear. So that there occurred nothing in her external appearance which could mark out to her father, with any thing like certainty, her intentions on this occasion.

The preparations for their humble meal were that morning made in vain. The father and daughter eat, each assuming the appearance of eating, when the other's eyes were turned to them, and desisting from the effort with disgust, when the affectionate imposture seemed no longer necessary.

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her, though his tongue failed distinctly to announce it
Father," said Jeanie, replying rather to his action
than his words, ye had better not."
In the strength of my God," answered Deans,
assuming firmness, "I will go forth."
And, taking his daughter's arm under his, he began
to walk from the door with a step so hasty, that she
was almost unable to keep up with him. A trifling
circumstance, but which marked the perturbed state
of his mind, checked his course.-"Your bonnet,
father?" said Jeanie, who observed he had come out
with his gray hairs uncovered. He turned back with
a slight blush on his cheek, being ashamed to have
been detected in an omission which indicated so
much mental confusion, assumed his large blue Scot-
tish bonnet, and with a step slower, but more com-
posed, as if the circumstance had obliged him to
summon up his resolution, and collect his scattered
ideas, again placed his daughter's arm under his, and
resumed the way to Edinburgh.

The courts of justice were then, and are still held in what is called the Parliament Close, or, according to modern phrase, the Parliament Square, and occupied the buildings intended for the accommodation of the Scottish Estates. This edifice, though in an imperfect and corrupted style of architecture, had then a grave, decent, and, as it were, a judicial aspect, which was at least entitled to respect from its antiquity. For which venerable front, I observed, on my last occasional visit to the metropolis, that modern taste had substituted, at great apparent expense, a pile so utterly inconsistent with every monument of antiquity around, and in itself so clumsy at the same time and fantastic, that it may be likened to the decorations of Tom Errand the Porter, in the Trip to the Jubilee, when he appears bedizened with the tawdry finery of Beau Clincher. Sed transeat cum cæteris erroribus,

The small quadrangle, or Close, if we may presume still to give it that appropriate, though antiquated title, which at Litchfield, Salisbury, and elsewhere, is properly applied to designate the enclosure adjacent to a cathedral, already evinced tokens of the fatal scene which was that day to be acted. The soldiers of the City Guard were on their posts, now enduring, and now rudely repelling with the butts of their muskets, the motley crew who thrust each other forward, to catch a glance at the unfortunate object of trial, as she should pass from the adjacent prison to the Court in which her fate was to be determined. All must At length these moments of constraint were re-have occasionally observed, with disgust, the apathy moved. The sound of St. Giles's heavy toll announced the hour previous to the commencement of the trial; Jeanie arose, and, with a degree of composure for which she herself could not account, assumed her plaid, and made her other preparations for a distant walking. It was a strange contrast between the firmness of her demeanour, and the vacillation and cruel uncertainty of purpose indicated in all her father's motions; and one unacquainted with both could scarcely have supposed that the former was, in her ordinary habits of life, a docile, quiet, gentle, and even tímid country-maiden, while her father, with a mind naturally proud and strong, and supported by religious opinions, of a stern, stoical, and unyielding character, had in his time undergone and withstood the most severe hardships, and the most imminent peril, without depression of spirit, or subjugation of his constancy. The secret of this difference was, that Jeanie's mind had already anticipated the line of conduct which she must adopt, with all its natural and necessary consequences; while her father, ignorant of every other circumstance, tormented himself with imagining what the one sister might say or swear, or what effect her testimony might have upon the awful event of the trial.

He watched his daughter, with a faltering and indecisive look, until she looked back upon him, with a look of unutterable anguish, as she was about to leave the apartment,

My dear lassie," said he, "I will"-His action, hastily and confusedly searching for his worsted mittens and staff, showed his purpose of accompanying A kind of worsted gloves used by the lower orders.

with which the vulgar gaze on scenes of this nature, and how seldom, unless when their sympathies are called forth by some striking and extraordinary circumstance, the crowd evince any interest deeper than that of callous, unthinking bustle, and brutal curiosity. They laugh, jest, quarrel, and push each other to and fro, with the same unfeeling indifference as if they were assembled for some holiday sport, or to see an idle procession. Occasionally, however, this demeanour, so natural to the degraded populace of a large town, is exchanged for a temporary touch of human affections; and so it chanced on the present occasion.

When Deans and his daughter presented themselves in the Close, and endeavoured to make their way forward to the door of the Court-house, they became involved in the mob, and subject, of course, to their insolence. As Deans repelled with some force the rude pusnes which he received on all sides, his figure and antiquated dress caught he attention of the rabble, who often show an intuitive sharpness in ascribing the proper character from external appearance.

* g

"Ye're welcome, whigs,
Frae Bothwell origgs,'

sung one fellow (for the mob of Edinburgh were at that time jacobitically disposed, probably because that was the line of sentiment most diametrically opposite to existing authority.).

"Mess David Williamson,
Chosen of twenty,
Ran up the pu'pit stair,
And sang Killiecrankie,"

chanted a siren, whose profession might be guessed by her appearance. A tattered cadie, or errand porter, whom David Deans had jostled in his attempt to extricate himself from the vicinity of these scorners, exclaimed in a strong north-country tone, "Ta deil ding out her Cameronian een-what gies her titles to dunch gentleman's about?"

"Make room for the ruling elder," said yet another; "he comes to see a precious sister glorify God in the Grassmarket!"

do at the Circuit-The High Court of Justiciary is
aye fenced.-But, Lord's sake, what's this o't?-Jea-
nie, ye are a cited witness-Macer, this lass is a wit-
ness-she maun be enclosed-she maun on nae ac-
count be at large. Mr. Novit, suldna Jeanie Deans
be enclosed ?"

Novit answered in the affirmative, and offered to conduct Jeanie to the apartment, where, according to the scrupulous practice of the Scottish Court, the witnesses remain in readiness to be called into court to give evidence; and separated, at the same time, from all who might influence their testimony, or giv them information concerning that which was passing upon the trial.

Is this necessary?" said Jeanie, still reluctant to quit her father's hand.

"A matter of absolute needcessity," said Saddletree; wha ever heard of witnesses no being en"It is really a matter of necessity," said the younger counsellor, retained for her sister; and Jeanie reluctantly followed the macer of the court to the place appointed.

"Whisht; shame's in ye, sirs," said the voice of a man very loudly, which, as quickly sinking, said in a low, but distinct tone, "It's her father and sister." All fell back to make way for the sufferers; and all, even the very rudest and most profligate, were struck with shame and silence. In the space thus abandoned to them by the mob, Deans stood, holding his | daughter by the hand, and said to her, with a countenance strongly and sternly expressive of his inter-closed?" nal emotion, Ye hear with your ears, and ye see with your eyes, where and to whom the backslidings and defections of professors are ascribed by the scoffers. Not to themselves alone, but to the kirk of which they are members, and to its blessed and invisible Head. Then, weel may we take wi' patience our share and portion of this outspreading reproach." The man who had spoken, no other than our old friend Dumbiedikes, whose mouth, like that of the prophet's ass, had been opened by the emergency of the case, now joined them, and, with his usual taciturnity, escorted them into the Court-house. No opposition was offered to their entrance, either by the guards or door-keepers; and it is even said, that one of the latter refused a shilling of civility-money, tendered him by the Laird of Dumbiedikes, who was of opinion that "siller wad mak a' easy,' But this last incident wants confirmation.

"This, Mr. Deans," said Saddletree, "is ca'd sequetṣering a witness; but it's clean different (whilk maybe ye wadna fund out o' yoursell) frae sequestering anes estate or effects, as in cases of bankruptcy. I hae aften been sequestered as a witness, for the Sheriff is in the use whiles to cry me in to witness the declarations at precognitions, and so is Mr. Sharpitlaw; but I was ne'er like to be sequestered o' land and goods but ance, and that was lang syne, afore I was married. But whisht, whisht! here's the Court coming."

As he spoke, the five Lords of Justiciary, in their long robes of scarlet, faced with white, and precedea by their mace-bearer, entered with the usual formali ties, and took their places upon the bench of judg ment.

Admitted within the precincts of the Court-house, they found the usual number of busy office-bearers, and idle loiterers, who attend on these scenes by The audience rose to receive them; and the bustle choice, or from duty. Burghers gaped and stared; occasioned by their entrance was hardly composed, young lawyers sauntered, sneered, and laughed, as when a great noise and confusion of persons strug in the pit of the theatre; while others apart sat on gling, and forcibly endeavouring to enter at the doors a bench retired, and reasoned highly, inter apices ju- of the Court-room and of the galleries, announced ris, on the doctrines of constructive crime, and the that the prisoner was about to be placed at the bar. true import of the statute. The bench was prepared This tumult takes place when the doors, at first only for the arrival of the judges: The jurors were in at- opened to those either having right to be present, of tendance. The crown-counsel, employed in looking to the better and more qualified ranks, are at length over their briefs and notes of evidence, looked grave, laid open to all whose curiosity induces them to be and whispered with each other. They occupied one present on the occasion. With inflamed countenanside of a large table placed beneath the bench; on the ces and dishevelled dresses, struggling with, and other sat the advocates, whom the humanity of the sometimes tumbling over each other, in rushed the Scottish law (in this particular more liberal than that rade multitude, while a few soldiers, forming, as it of the sister country) not only permits, but enjoins were, the centre of the tide, could scarce, with all to appear and assist with their advice and skill, all their efforts, clear a passage for the prisoner to the persons under trial. Mr. Nichil Novit was seen act-place which she was to occupy. By the authority of ively instructing the counsel for the panel, (so the prisoner is called in Scottish law-phraseology,) busy, bustling, and important. When they entered the Court-room, Deans asked the Laird, in a tremulous whisper, "Where will she sit?"

Dumbiedikes whispered Novit, who pointed to a vacant space at the bar, fronting the judges, and was about to conduct Deans towards it.

"No!" he said; "I cannot sit by her-I cannot own her-not as yet, at least-I will keep out of her sight, and turn mine own eyes elsewhere-better for us baith."

Saddletree, whose repeated interference with the counsel had procured him one or two rebuffs, and a special request that he would concern himself with his own matters, now saw with pleasure an opportunity of playing the person of importance. He bustled up to the poor old man, and proceeded to exhibit nis consequence, by securing, through his interest with the bar-keepers and macers, a seat for Deans, in a situation where he was hidden from the general eye by the projecting corner of the bench.

the Court, and the exertions of its officers, the tumult among the spectators was at length appeased, and the unhappy girl brought forward, and placed be twixt two sentinels with drawn bayonets, as a prisoner at the bar, where she was to abide her deliverance for good or evil, according to the issue of her trial.

CHAPTER XXII.

We have strict statutes, and most biting laws-
The needful bits, and curbs for headstrong steeds-
Which, for these fourteen years, we have let sleep,
Like to an o'ergrown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey.-Measure for Measure.
"EUPHEMIA DEANS," said the presiding Judge, in
an accent in which pity was blended with dignity,
"stand up and listen to the criminal indictment now.
to be preferred against you."

The unhappy girl, who had been stupified by the confusion through which the guards had forced a passage, cast a bewildered look on the multitude of.. "It's gude to have a friend at court," he said, con- faces around her, which seemed to tapestry, as tuing his heartless harangues to the passive auditor, were, the walls in one broad slope from the ceiling who neither heard nor replied to them; "few folk to the floor, with human countenances, and instinctout mysell could hae sorted ye out a seat like this-ively obeyed a command, which rung in her ears like the Lords will be here incontinent, and proceed in the trumpet of the judgment-day. Manter to trial. They wunna fence the court as they "Put back your hair, Effie," said one of the macers.

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All marked and were moved by these changes, excepting one. It was old Deans, who, motionless in his seat, and concealed, as we have said, by the corner of the bench, from seeing or being seen, did nevertheless keep his eyes firmly fixed on the ground, as if determined that, by no possibility whatever, would he be an ocular witness of the shame of his house. Ichabod!" he said to himself "Ichabod my glory is departed!"

While these reflections were passing through his mind, the indictment, which set forth in technical form the crime of which the panel, stood accused, was read as usual, and the prisoner was asked if she was Guilty, or Not Guilty.

Not guilty of my poor bairn's death," said Effie Deans, in an accent corresponding in plaintive softness of tone to the beauty of her features, and which was not heard by the audience without emotion.

The presiding Judge next directed the counsel to plead to the relevancy; that is, to state on either part the arguments in point of law, and evidence in point of fact, against and in favour of the criminal; after which it is the form of the court to pronounce a preliminary judgment, sending the cause to the cognizance of the jury or assize.

The counsel for the crown briefly stated the frequency of the crime of infanticide which had given rise to the special statute under which the panel stood indicted. He mentioned the various instances, many of them marked with circumstances of atrocity, which had at length induced the King's Advocate, though with great reluctance, to make the experiment, whether by strictly enforcing the Act of Parliament which had been made to prevent such enormities, their occurrence might be prevented. "He expected," he said, "to be able to establish by wit nesses, as well as by the declaration of the panel herself, that she was in the state described by the statute. According to his information, the panel had communicated her pregnancy to no one, nor did she allege in her own declaration that she had done so. This secrecy was the first requisite in support of the indictment. The same declaration admitted, that she had borne a male child, in circumstances which gave but too much reason to believe it had died by the hands, or at least with the knowledge or con sent, of the unhappy mother. It was not, however, necessary for him to bring positive proof that the panel was accessary to the murder, nay, nor even to prove that the child was murdered at all. It was Bufficient to support the indictment, that it could not be found. According to the stern, but necessary severity of this statute, she who should conceal her pregnancy, who should omit to call that assistance which is most necessary on such occasions, was hed already to have meditated the death of her off

for or against her, that she must ultimately stand or
fall. I am not under the necessity of accounting for
her choosing to drop out of her declaration the cir
cumstances of her confession to her sister. She
might not be aware of its importance; she might be
afraid of implicating her sister; she might even have
forgotten the circumstance entirely, in the terror
and distress of mind incidental to the arrest of so
young a creature on a charge so heinous. Any of
these reasons are sufficent to account for her having
suppressed the truth in this instance, at whatever
risk to herself; and I incline most to her erroneous
fear of criminating her sister, because I observe she
has had a similar tenderness towards her lover,
(however undeserved on his part,) and has never
once mentioned Robertson's name from beginning
to end of her declaration.

counsel had laid so much weight, as affording proof | have given of herself, but by what is now to be proved
that his client proposed to allow no fair play for its
life, to the helpless being whom she was about to
bring into the world. She had not announced to her
friends that she had been seduced from the path of
honour and why had she not done so?-Because
she expected daily to be restored to character, by her
seducer doing her that justice which she knew to be
in his power, and believed to be in his inclination,
Was it natural-was it reasonable was it fair, to
expect that she should, in the interim, become fclo
de se of her own character, and proclaim her frailty
to the world, when she had every reason to expect,
that, by concealing it for a season, it might be veiled
for ever? Was it not, on the contrary, pardonable,
that, in such an emergency, a young woman, in such
a situation, should be found far from disposed to
make a confidant of every prying gossip, who, with
sharp eyes, and eager ears, pressed upon her for an
explanation of suspicious circumstances, which fe-
males in the lower-he might say which females of
all ranks are so alert in noticing, that they sometimes
discover them where they do not exist? Was it
strange, or was it criminal, that she should have
repelled their inquisitive impertinence with petulant
denials? The sense and feeling of all who heard him
would answer directly in the negative. But although
his client had thus remained silent towards those to
whom she was not called upon to communicate her
situation, to whom," said the learned gentleman,
"I will add, it would have been unadvised and im-
proper in her to have done so; yet, I trust, I shall
remove this case most triumphantly from under the
statute, and obtain the unfortunate young woman an
honourable dismission from your Lordships' bar, by
showing that she did, in due time and place, and to
a person most fit for such confidence, mention the
calamitous circumstances in which she found herself.
This occurred after Robertson's conviction, and when
he was lying in prison in expectation of the fate which
his comrade Wilson afterwards suffered, and from
which he himself so strangely escaped. It was then,
when all hopes of having her honour repaired by
wedlock vanished from her eyes, when an union
with one in Robertson's situation, if still practicable,
might, perhaps, have been regarded rather as an ad-
dition to her disgrace,-it was then, that I trust to be
able to prove that the prisoner communicated and
consulted with her sister, a young woman several
years older than herself, the daughter of her father,
if I mistake not, by a former marriage, upon the
perils and distress of her unhappy situation.'

"If, indeed, you are able to instruct that point, Mr. Fairbrother," said the presiding Judge

"If I am indeed able to instruct that point, my Lord," resumed Mr. Fairbrother, "I trust not only to serve my client, but to relieve your Lordships from that which I know you feel the most painful duty of your high office; and to give all who now hear me the exquisite pleasure of beholding a creature so young, so ingenuous, and so beautiful, as she that is now at the bar of your Lordships' Court, dismissed from thence in safety and in honour."

This address seemed to affect many of the audience, and was followed by a slight murmur of applause. Deans, as he heard his daughter's beauty and innocent appearance appealed to, was involuntarily about to turn his eyes towards her; but, recollecting himself, he bent them again on the ground with stubborn resolution.

"Will not my learned brother, on the other side of the bar," continued the advocate, after a short pause, share in this general joy, since I know, while he discharges his duty in bringing an accused person here, no one rejoices more in their being freely and honourably sent hence? My learned brother shakes his head doubtfully, and lays his hand on the panel's declaration. I understand him perfectly-he would insinuate that the facts now stated to your Lordships are inconsistent with the confession of Euphemia Deans herself. I need not remind your lordships, that her present defence is no whit to be narrowed within the bounds of her former confession; and that it is not by any account which she may formerly

"But my Lords," continued Fairbrother, "I am aware the King's Advocate will expect me to show that the proof I offer is consistent with other circumstances of the case, which I do not_and_cannot deny. He will demand of me how Effie Deans's confession to her sister, previous to her delivery, is reconcilable with the mystery of the birth-with the disappearance, perhaps the murder (for I will not deny a possibility which I cannot disprove) of the infant. My Lords, the explanation of this is to be found in the placability, perchance, I may say, in the facility and pliability, of the female sex. The dulcis Ama ryllidis ira, as your Lordships well know, are easily appeased; nor is it possible to conceive a woman so atrociously offended by the man whom she has loved, but what she will retain a fund of forgiveness, upon which his penitence, whether real or affected, may draw largely, with a certainty that his bills will be answered. We can prove, by a letter produced in evidence, that this villain Robertson, from the bottom of the dungeon whence he already probably meditated the escape, which he afterwards accomplished by the assistance of his comrade, contrived to exercise authority over the mind, and to direct the motions, of this unhappy girl. It was in compliance with his injunctions, expressed in that letter, that the panel was prevailed upon to alter the line of conduct which her own better thoughts had suggested; and, instead of resorting, when her time of travail approached, to the protection of her own family, was induced to confide herself to the charge of some vile agent of this nefarious seducer, and by her conducted to one of those solitary and secret purlieus of villany, which, to the shame of our police, still are suffered to exist in the suburbs of this city, where, with the assistance, and under the charge, of a person of her own sex, she bore a male-child, under circumstances which added treble bitterness to the wo denounced against our original mother. What purpose Robertson had in all this, it is hard to tell or even to guess. He may have meant to marry the girl, for her father is a man of substance. But, for the termination of the story, and the conduct of the woman whom he had placed about the person of Euphemia Deans, it is still more difficult to account. The unfortunate young woman was visited by the fever incidental to her situation. In this fever she appears to have been deceived by the person that waited on her, and, on recovering her senses, she found that she was childless in that abode of misery. Her infant had been carried off, perhaps for the worst purposes, by the wretch that waited on her. It may have been murdered for what I can tell."

He was here interrupted by a piercing shriek, uttered by the unfortunate prisoner. She was with difficulty brought to compose herself. Her counse availed himself of the tragical interruption, to close his pleading with effect.

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My Lords," said he, "in that piteous cry you heard the eloquence of maternal affection, far surpassing the force of my poor words-Rachel weeping for her children! Nature herself bears testimony in favour of the tenderness and acuteness of the prisoner's parental feelings. I will not dishonour her plea by adding a word more."

"Heard ye ever the like o' that, Laird?” sa'd Sad

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