Page:Paul Clifford Vol 3.djvu/307

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PAUL CLIFFORD.
299

convulsively for breath)—so humanely added by the Jury, shall be forwarded to the supreme power, but I cannot flatter you with much hope of its success—(the lawyers looked with some surprise at each other: they had expected a far more unqualified mandate, to abjure all hope from the Jury's recommendation).—Prisoner! for the opinions you have expressed, you are now only answerable to your God; I forbear to arraign them. For the charge you have made against me, whether true or false, and for the anguish it has given me, may you find pardon at another tribunal! It remains for me only—under a reserve too slight, as I have said, to afford you a fair promise of hope—only to—to—(all eyes were on Brandon: he felt it, exerted himself for a last effort, and proceeded)—to pronounce on you the sharp sentence of the law! It is, that you be taken back to the prison whence you came, and thence (when the supreme authority shall appoint) to the place of execution, to be there hanged by the neck till you are dead; and the Lord God Almighty have mercy on your soul!"