You can give me the substance of it, if you don't remember the words." "I'll try, sir; but I'm not very clear. I told him I could not love him, and wished to have nothing more to do with him. He did his best to over-persuade me, but I kept steady, and at last I ran off." "And you never spoke to him again." "Never!" "Now, young woman, remember you are upon your oath. Did you ever tell the prisoner at the bar of Mr Henry Carson's attentions to you? of your acquaintance, in short? Did you ever try to excite his jealousy by boasting of a lover so far above you in station?" "Never. I never did," said she, in so firm and distinct a manner as to leave no doubt. "Were you aware that he knew of Mr Henry Carson's regard for you? Remember you are on your oath!" "Never, sir. I was not aware until I heard of the quarrel between them, and what Jem had said to the policeman, and that was after the murder.
To this day I can't make out who told Jem. Oh, sir, may not I go down?" For she felt the sense, the composure, the very bodily strength which she had compelled to her aid for a time, suddenly giving way, and was conscious that she was losing all command over herself. There was no occasion to detain her longer; she had done her part. She might go down. The evidence was still stronger against the prisoner; but now he stood erect and firm, with self-respect in his attitude, and a look of determination on his face, which almost made it appear noble. Yet he seemed lost in thought. Job Legh had all this time been trying to soothe and comfort Mrs Wilson, who would first be in the court, in order to see her darling, and then, when her sobs became irrepressible, had to be led out into the open air, and sat there weeping, on the steps of the court-house. Who would have taken charge of Mary, on her release from the witness-box, I do not know, if Mrs Sturgis, the boatman's wife, had not been there; brought by her interest in Mary, towards whom she now pressed, in order to urge her to leave the scene of the trial. "No! no!" said Mary, to this proposition. "I must be here. I must watch that they don't hang him, you know I must." "Oh! they'll not hang him! never fear! Besides, the wind has changed, and that's in his favour. Come away. You're so hot, and first white and then red; I'm sure you're ill. Just come away." "Oh! I don't know about any thing but that I must stay," replied Mary, in a strange hurried manner, catching hold of some rails as if she feared some bodily force would be employed to remove her. So Mrs Sturgis just waited patiently by her, every now and then peeping among the congregation of heads in the body of the court, to see if her husband were still there.
