This, however, proved to be an extreme view. They did leave the box, but in exactly nine minutes had returned into court. As slowly they defiled back again into the court with their verdict, the excitement depicted in their looks was painful to observe. Their drawn faces were livid and perspiring; they kept down their heads without glancing to the right or to the left. The foreman, a coal dealer in a small way of business in the Commercial Road, was seized with a violent twitching of the body. “Are you agreed upon your verdict, gentlemen?” whispered the Clerk of the Arraigns. “We are,” said the foreman of the jury, in a voice that could hardly be heard. “What is your verdict, gentlemen?” “We return a verdict of--of--” The conclusion of the sentence seemed to die in the foreman’s throat. “Will you please speak in such a manner that his lordship may hear you?” said the clerk. “We return a verdict of not guilty,” said the foreman, with his eyes fixed on the rail before him. To the horror of many who observed him, he appeared to trace some words upon it with his finger. The demonstration which followed the verdict had been anticipated, and accordingly on this occasion the officers of the court were able in some measure to control it. No sooner had the judge uttered a few words, which in the clamor were inaudible, than he rose hastily from his seat. In the same instant Northcote rose also, and that voice and presence which for so many hours had exercised such an unquestioned sway at once detained those who were thronging eagerly through the doors into the raw December darkness. “Before the court rises,” said Northcote, “I crave your lordship’s indulgence for a brief moment.” The judge bowed courteously and resumed his seat, a little unsteadily as was thought by those who were near to him. “I desire to offer to your lordship,” said the young advocate, with a humility that was affecting, “in a public manner, an ample and an unreserved apology for an allusion which had the misfortune to fall from my lips. I gave utterance to it in a moment of great mental excitement, and at that moment I did not realize, so completely was I under the domination of the end I had in view, that in a sense such an allusion was an indictment of your lordship and of that high office upon which, during a quarter of a century past, your lordship has conferred honor. I beg to be allowed to crave your lordship’s forgiveness. Had these words not been spoken at a time when I was overcome by the heat of advocacy, they would never have been spoken at all.”