Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 05
General
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 05
Scottish Borders (Scotland) -- Fiction
The scene of that day was, in an eminent degree, heart-rending; the
facts proved seemed to strike the unfortunate man like thunderbolts,
driving him into a state of stupor from which he was no sooner roused
than he was again stricken with the same paralysing proof of his crime.
The hand of the Almighty appeared to be occupied in tracing, before the
averted eyes of the murderer, the secret purpose he had devised in the
recesses of his heart, far removed, as he thought, from mortal eye, yet
now revealed as evidence to consign him to the death he was unprepared
to meet; and, as he prayed, ejaculated, wept, and swooned by turns, the
people assembled in court, while they could not doubt his crime, or
conceal from themselves its enormity, pitied the victim of such agony of
torture as he was apparently suffering, only, too, on the very threshold
of his misery.
Having remained in court after my examination, I was called upon by the
judge, on more occasions than one, to administer what relief was in my
power to the unhappy being, as he lay apparently senseless under the
bolt of some truth that came on him from the witness-box, as if to seal
his doom in this world. I could do little for him, when he was struck by
these moral impulses, except by administering stimulants; but, on one
occasion, he lay so long under an attack of syncope, that I felt myself
called upon to have him removed, for a short time, to an ante-room,
where I took from him some ounces of blood. I have watched the eyes of
patients brought back to sensibility, life, and hope, and seen the ray
of the brightening prospect of health, success, and happiness, dawn on
the drowsy orb; but I had not before witnessed the return of sense and
intelligence to be directed, at the first glance, on a gallows, and I
shuddered as I perceived the breaking in on his clouded mind of the
consciousness of the situation in which he was placed--the terror of
again facing that court, and that damning evidence, and the recoiling
effort he made to escape--alas, how vain!--from the grasp of the
officers, as they again proceeded to carry him to the court-room. When
placed again at the bar, upheld by the officers, pale and trembling, the
relentless forms of justice proceeded; the witnesses resumed the chain
of evidence, and the unfortunate man was again subjected to the rack,
under the torture of which his weakened body recoiled with feebler
efforts, as exhausted nature denied the supply of the sensibility of
pain. But the charge of the judge, which was hollow against the
prisoner, ingenious in its reasonings and stern in its conclusions,
again revived the slumbering agonies, and the return of the verdict
"Guilty" by the jury, was the signal for the commencement of a scene
which the hardest hearted person in the court could not witness without
horror. A shrill scream ran through the court-room, and was followed by
the extraordinary sight of the prisoner clambering over the bar,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account