Part 56 (2/2)
The dense throng in the court seemed not to breathe at that awful moment. Every one waited for the reply. It came slowly and deliberately,--
”I know it.”
The paper dropped from the judge's hand, and fluttered to the floor.
In the court there was a half-uttered murmur of amazement. A man stood there to surrender his life, with all that was near and dear to it.
Not dogged, trapped, made desperate by fate, but cheerfully and of his own free will.
Wonder and awe fell on that firmament of faces. Brave fellows there found the heart swell and the pulse beat quick as they saw that men-- plain, rude men, Englishmen, kinsmen--might still do n.o.bly. Cowards shrank closer together.
And, in the midst of all, the man who stood to die wore the serenest look to be seen there. Not an eye but was upturned to his placid face.
The judge's voice broke the silence,--
”And was it with this knowledge and this view that you surrendered?”
Ralph folded his arms across his breast and bowed.
The silence could be borne no longer. The murmurs of the spectators broke into a wild tumult of cheers, like the tossing of many waters; like the roar and lash of mighty winds that rise and swell, then ebb and surge again.
The usher of the court had not yet suppressed the applause, when it was observed that a disturbance of another kind had arisen near the door. A young woman with a baby in her arms was crus.h.i.+ng her way in past the javelin man stationed there, and was craning her neck to catch sight of the prisoner above the dense throng that occupied every inch of the floor.
”Let me have but a glance at him--one glance--for the dear G.o.d's sake let me but see him--only once--only for a moment.”
The judge called for silence, and the officer was hurrying the woman away when Ralph turned his face full towards the door.
”I see him now,” said the woman. ”He's not my husband. No,” she added, ”but I've seen him before somewhere.”
”Where, my good woman? Where have you seen him before the day?”
This was whispered in her ear by a man who had struggled his way to her side.
”Does he come from beyond Gaskarth?” she asked.
”Why, why?”
”This commotion ill befits the gravity of a trial of such grave concernment,” said one of the judges in an austere tone.
In another moment the woman and her eager interlocutor had left the court together.
There was then a brief consultation between the occupants of the bench.
”The pardon is binding,” said one; ”if it were otherwise it were the hardest case that could be for half the people of England.”
”Yet the King came back without conditions,” replied the other.
There was a general bustle in the court. The crier proclaimed silence.
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