It was with a mind conscious of the worst, and prepared to bear it, that with a calm, determined countenance, and collected air, he was confronted with his judges. The indictment was read, and the presiding judge asked him if he was “Guilty, or not guilty?” “Guilty I am!” said Willis, “as who that hears me is not? but, that I am more worthy of condemnation than even you, my judges, or than the accuser, I deny! ’Tis true, I have been guilty of bringing negroes from Africa to this island. But wherein am I thereby more guilty than you? Do you not eagerly buy them as soon as landed; and so hold out the temptation to bring them? ’Tis also true, that on the high sea I did, with force and death, resist ‘her Britannic Majesty’s vessel.’ Were moral right to prevail for once, her captain would be in my situation; for by his intervention the slaves that I would have brought here, to live in comfort to a good old age, will now be condemned to hard and short lives, as apprentices, in Brazil. But what avails my talking! My life, I know, is forfeited! and I will not degrade myself by making useless efforts to save it.” The counts in the indictment were all sustained. After a short consultation, he was adjudged to die. And standing up to hear his sentence, he found he was to be hung, the day after the morrow, to the fore-yard of his own vessel. He then was carried back to his dungeon. After the captain had been sentenced, the rest of the crew were brought up for trial; but being all men of little notoriety, and pleading their necessity to obey the commands of Willis, and that when they had joined the Maraposa they did not know she was a slaver, they were all pardoned except Mateo, who was compelled to pay a fine. De Vere, after the trial, returned home exultingly; the man that had caused him to be laughed at by the whole squadron, the one who had nearly killed him, and again came within an ace of capturing his brig, was about to be punished. Clara was likewise glad to hear of Willis’s fate, for she hated him for wounding her betrothed. But Don Manuel learned the result of the trial with sadness; he had tried to prevail upon De Vere not to prosecute, but the Englishman said it was impossible; his sense of justice, his oath and honor as an officer, all, he contended, compelled him to have the law enforced; he had even made an effort to influence the court, but found De Vere’s influence governed them all; he had not, however, given up all hope yet. Well was it for the secret of Francisca’s heart that the sentence of Willis was conveyed to her in her own chamber, by the faithful duenna, for as soon as she heard the awful news she sunk senseless on the floor; swoon succeeded swoon for some time, but recovering, in a degree, her composure, her eye brightened and her cheek flushed, as if some happy idea had flashed across her mind, and leaving the room she sought her father.