536 THE MALKDICTED. 



" Clement, his family, and yourself, are now completely in my 

 power." 



I ground my teeth in convulsive agony. 



" For you I have some regard. There is yet a way for your escape." 



" Name it !" 



" You must become his accuser swear to words which I shall utter, 

 and you are safe. I have already the deeds of the family estate in my 

 possession ; we'll discard the old fox, take the girls into companionship, 

 and live like princes !" 



I rose to crush him out of the shape of humanity., but he eluded my 

 grasp ; the door closed with a quick, harsh sound, and I was left alone 

 in darkness, and a tumult of indignation. 



It was long before my blood began to flow with its accustomed equa- 

 nimity my ears seemed yet to tingle with the tones in which the mon- 

 strous propositions had been made to me to me ! a devoted lover and 

 a fast friend of the family ! " Gracious Heaven !" I exclaimed, ft What 

 is he or what am I ? Has my conduct been so very ambiguous as to 

 warrant him in daring to offer me an indignity so degrading ? To stoop 

 at once to subornation and seduction to plunge from the paths of love 

 and honour, to the lair of lust and crime!'' It was too shocking for 

 reality and yet it was real. 



The morning came at length, whose evening might see us doomed to 

 a miserable death. I thought Kennedy looked paler than usual, though 

 his grasp, when we joined our hands in salutation, seemed to possess 

 more than its wonted fervour. We talked with cheerfulness of the 

 ordeal we were about to undergo, and fervently prayed for righteous 

 judges of our cause. We knew that some of our compatriots were to 

 be sacrificed, yet we advanced to the tribunal with manly confidence. 



The day was considerably spent before we were called upon to plead, 

 and I thought, as I looked upon some of the faces which feeling or 

 curiosity had draw around us, that they seemed already tired of the 

 occupation. The sight of two new victims, however, gave another 

 impulse to them, and they renerved themselves to hear yet more of 

 crime yet more of terrible retribution. Why should I detail our trial ? 

 It was but a simple addition to the already oft-read records of that 

 period of heart-burnings and bloodshed. The witness whose testimony 

 told most bitterly against us, was my Judas visitant of the previous 

 night. I own, when first he stood upon the witness table, I longed to 

 spring from the dock, and perpetrate murder even before the throne of 

 justice ; but my reason returned, and I beheld him quit the table with 

 a feeling of mingled pity and abhorrence. I saw that the tide was set- 

 ting in rapidly against poor Kennedy, and his pale but earnest features 

 seemed to tell a tale scrupulously similar. My implication was not so 

 fiercely emblazoned as his, but the damning clause remained behind 

 the act of one was the act of all. 



The case for the crown was over, and Clement Kennedy was called 

 upon for his defence. This was one of the most interesting moments of 

 my life. He began in a low and uneven tone, to denounce the charge 

 generally ; but as he acquired confidence, and his voice began to make 

 a decided impression in the court, he gradually rose into a strain of lofty 

 impassioned eloquence, which arrested every ear, and turned every eye 

 upon him. He painted, in fervent colours, the moral degradation of his 

 unhappy country, and asserted the right of every free-born native of the 



