SOLON ROBINSON, 1841 181 



ting evidence. What had they to offer. The fiendish writh- 

 ings of the serpent counsel of the claimant, were visible 

 to all, and had "lynch law" been as much in practice at 

 that day, as it has since, his own personal safety might 

 have been endangered. All seemed to sympathise with 

 the defendants, even the Court itself; for when there 

 seemed no hope for them, the Court asked the counsel 

 "if they had no witness to prove that Atwater had ever 

 acknowledged this girl as his child?" "No — He never 

 saw her ; she was born eight months after her father left 

 home." — "Then the Court cannot perceive how it can 

 avoid pronouncing judgment in favor of the plaintiff, 

 however much it might be urged by private feelings to do 

 otherwise. We have no doubt of the legitimate birth of 

 this interesting young lady now before us, yet in the 

 absence of all legal testimony of the past, we are most 

 painfully constrained to pronounce a judgment that will 

 make a record to the contrary." 



This last shock was too much for the nerves of Indiana. 

 To lose her inheritance was enough; but to be branded 

 with bastardy, without the power to refute it, seemed 

 too much for delicacy to bear. In the agony of the mo- 

 ment she stretched out her hands, while she groaned 

 aloud. The stranger mentioned before, had manifested 

 a most uncommon interest throughout all the proceedings, 

 as circumstances had been developed, which the reader 

 has been made acquainted with; even so much so as to 

 draw the attention of every person to his actions. But 

 when Indiana extended her hands, one of them came al- 

 most in contact with his eyes, and he could contain him- 

 self no longer. Springing from his seat, he caught the 

 hand in his, and while gazing upon it, exclaimed, "By 

 heavens, the ring!" Like a sudden explosion, was this 

 short expression ; the first effect of which is to strike all 

 dumb for an instant, and then louder and louder grows 

 the hum of a thousand anxious voices. Indiana screamed 

 with the sudden and strange words. — Scott was the first 

 to speak : "Sir, in pity tell, what know you of that ring?" 



