He fell into a stunned stupor that was indeed like madness.
The jury retired--vaguely he saw them go.

They returned.

Was it minutes or hours they had been gone?
His dulled eyes looked at them expressionless.
"How say you, gentlemen of the jury--guilty or not guilty ?" "Guilty!" Amid dead silence the word fell.

Every heart thrilled with awe but one.

The condemned man sat staring at them with an awful, dull, glazed stare.
The judge arose and put on his black cap, his face white, his lips trembling.
Only the last words seemed to strike him--to crash into his whirling brain with a noise like thunder.
"And that there you be hanged by the neck until dead, and may the Lord have mercy upon your soul!" He sat down.