Page:Paul Clifford Vol 3.djvu/297

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PAUL CLIFFORD.
289

are open and all secrets are known, will grant you the temper and the judgment to form a right decision!"

There was in the majestic aspect and thrilling voice of Brandon, something which made the commonest form of words solemn and impressive; and the hypocrite, aware of this felicity of manner, generally, as now, added weight to his concluding words, by a religious allusion, or a scriptural phraseology. He ceased; and the Jury, recovering the effect of his adjuration, consulted for a moment among themselves: the Foreman, then addressing the Court on behalf of his fellow-jurors, requested leave to retire for deliberation. An attendant bailiff being sworn in, we read in the journals of the day, which noted the divisions of time with that customary scrupulosity rendered terrible by the reflection how soon all time and seasons may perish for the hero of the scene, that it "was at twenty-five minutes to two that the Jury withdrew."

Perhaps in the whole course of a criminal trial there is no period more awful than that occupied by the deliberation of the Jury. In the present