, but to which imagination
adds a sort of solemnity, from the awful occasion upon which it is used. A
lighted candle was placed on the table, the original paper containing the
verdict was enclosed in a sheet of paper, and, sealed with the Judge's own
signet, was transmitted to the Crown Office, to be preserved among other records
of the same kind. As all this is transacted in profound silence, the producing
and extinguishing the candle seems a type of the human spark which is shortly
afterwards doomed to be quenched, and excites in the spectators something of the
same effect which in England is obtained by the Judge assuming the fatal cap of
judgment. When these preliminary forms had been gone through, the Judge required
Euphemia Deans to attend to the verdict to be read.
    After the usual words of style, the verdict set forth, that the Jury having
made choice of John Kirk, Esq., to be their chancellor, and Thomas Moore,
merchant, to be their clerk, did, by a plurality of voices, find the said
Euphemia Deans GUILTY of the crime libelled; but, in consideration of her
extreme youth, and the cruel circumstances of her case, did earnestly entreat
that the Judge would recommend her to the mercy of the Crown.
    »Gentlemen,« said the Judge, »you have done your duty - and a painful one it
must have been to men of humanity like you. I will undoubtedly transmit your
recommendation to the throne. But it is my duty to tell all who now hear me, but
especially to inform that unhappy young woman, in order that her mind may be
settled accordingly, that I have not the least hope of a pardon being granted in
the present case. You know the crime has been increasing in this land, and I
know farther, that this has been ascribed to the lenity in which the laws have
been exercised, and that there is therefore no hope whatever of obtaining a
remission for this offence.« The jury bowed again, and, released from their
painful office, dispersed themselves among the mass of bystanders.
    The Court then asked Mr. Fairbrother whether he had anything to say, why
judgment should not follow on the verdict? The counsel had spent some time in
persuing and reperusing the verdict, counting the letters in each juror's name,
and weighing every phrase, nay, every syllable, in the nicest scales of legal
criticism. But the clerk of the jury had understood his business too well. No
flaw was to be found, and Fairbrother mournfully intimated, that he had nothing
to say in
