THJi MALEDICTED. 537 



soil to wrest her liberties from the grasp of oppression, and place them 

 in immutable security on the sacred altar of freedom. " For my part," 

 said he, " I know not how others may feel, but my dying cry shall be, 

 give my country liberty, or give me a speedy death !" A murmur of 

 approbation appeared to pervade the nearer spectators, but it was 

 speedily hushed in what I considered to be sighs of genuine pity, 

 breathed over misapplied accomplishments. 

 My defence was brief. 



When the jury had heard the comments of the venerable baron on the 

 bench, they retired for consultation, and then came the torment of sus- 

 pense ! I considered that I had borne myself manfully through that 

 eventful day. I had even spoken words of kindness to my fellow in 

 adversity, when I thought I saw his colour flitting, or his fine counte- 

 nance relaxing in the firmness of its heroic expression ; but in that short 

 space I found myself perfectly unmaned a thousand indefinable sen- 

 sations crowded over me, and drove me into imbecility. It was near 

 midnight when the arbiters of fate returned. The candles that here and 

 there lent their reluctant light, threw a feeble glare upon them as they 

 entered slowly, one by one, which made them seem like penal spirits 

 doomed to scourge mankind. I felt myself sinking. I grasped the 

 front of the bar with the fervour of a drowning person. As their names 

 were told over, I literally gasped for breath. The lights quivered be- 

 fore my eyes. A noise as of rapid and mighty waters was rushing in 

 my ears. My tongue was drawn in an agony of thirst to the roof of my 

 mouth, and I seemed to verge upon suffocation, yet sustained by some 

 superior power, which held me back to consciousness. At length, in the 

 dead silence of the court, I heard " Clement Kennedy, GUILTY," and I 

 fell stunned and insensible at his feet. 



I felt that cold water had been thrown over me, and that a load as of 

 millions of mountains was passing slowly from my soul. The pains of 

 resuscitation must be dreadful. I have heard of dying agonies but the 

 throes of returning life are awfully severe. That midnight scene of 

 horror was not well calculated to aid a baffled intellect I shrieked aloud 

 for Kennedy. The human heart is a wildly unstable and fearful thing ; 

 now brave as the spirit of all-enduring hope, and now sunk in weakness 

 and despair. Kennedy had anticipated his fate he was dying in the 

 arms of the prison keeper ! 



I learnt that during my fearful trance, he was calm and apparently 

 collected; he heard himself pronounced guilty without emotion. He 

 heard me termed "not guilty" with a faint smile of satisfaction ; but, while 

 the awful sentence was being pronounced, he trembled violently it was 

 then that he was observed to raise his hand to his lips it was then that 

 he had determined to remove his cause from the unrighteous hands of 

 men, and rush with it to the bar of his creator. 



They bore him Scidly to his cell, where I determined to render the last 

 services to his remains ; but my trial, or rather the effects of it, was not 

 got over; I was seized with malignant fever, and conveyed from the 

 apartment in delirium. 



Some weeks elapsed before I was again enabled to mingle in society. 

 Poor Kennedy had been laid in a felons grave, unblest and almost 

 unwept. He was buried at midnight by the attendants of the gaol ; his 

 unhappy family not even allowed the information till all was over. I 

 had a farewell letter from him for his mother, but I knew not how to 



