Slowly the immense audience dispersed, and for a few moments the prisoners were allowed to converse with their weeping friends, after which they were again conducted to their cells to await the action of the court.
A few days later they were brought quietly before the judge and their sentences were pronounced.

Dr.Johnson, owing to the existence of a doubt as to his complicity in the robbery, was condemned to four years' imprisonment on the charge of forgery, while Newton Edwards, Eugene Pearson, and Thomas Duncan were each sentenced to an imprisonment of six years on the indictment for burglary.
Thus ended this important case, and the action of the court received the almost universal approbation of the community, while the relatives and nearest friends of the prisoners were compelled to acknowledge its fairness and justice.
But little remains to be told.

The prisoners were soon conducted to the state prison, and a short time afterward, having occasion to visit that institution, I saw them again.

They all bore evidences of the most acute remorse and contrition, and their life in prison had produced serious effects upon their robust persons.

Far different was their lot now, to the free and happy existence which had once been theirs.