human
I can not blame the gentlemen of the jury, he said.
gpt
Their fatal verdict is, I am sure, as conscientious as God and myself know it to be erroneous--false! Circumstances are, I feel, strangely arrayed against me; and it has been my fate through life to be always harshly judged, save only by one whose truth and affection have shed over my checkered existence the only happiness it has ever known. I observed, too, the telling sneer of the prosecuting counsel, connecting the circumstances under which I left the navy with the _cowardice_ of the deed with which I stand here accused--convicted, I suppose, I should say. I forgive that gentleman his cruel sneer as freely as I do you, gentlemen of the jury, your mistaken verdict--you, my lord, the death-sentence you are about to pronounce. The manner in which I hope to pass through the brief, but dark and bitter passage lying between me and the grave will, I trust, be a sufficient answer to the taunt of cowardice, and the future vindication of my innocence, not for my own, but my wife and children's sake, I confidently leave them to Him into whose hands I shall soon, untimely, render up my spirit. This is all I have to say.
human
Let the prisoner be removed; I will pass sentence to-morrow.
gpt
Is that you? he broke out.
human
Come along, then, and quick, for the love of God! I've missed Sims and his clerk, but you'll do as well; perhaps better. I had no power, if I had the inclination to refuse, for the enthusiastic man seized me by the arm, and hurried me along at a tremendous rate toward the outskirts of the city.
gpt
This is the place, he exclaimed, as he burst into a tavern parlor, where two trunks had been deposited.
human
He's not come yet, Burnham went on,
gpt
Whom are you talking of? Who's off to London to-night?
human
James Berry, if he's clever enough! Look there!
gpt
I see; 'James Berry, Passenger, London.' These, then, are his trunks, I suppose.
human
Right, my boy; but there is nothing of importance in _them_. Sly, steady-going Margery has well ascertained that. You know Margery?--but hush! here he comes.
gpt
You here? he stammered, as he mechanically took a chair by the fire.
human
Who would have thought it?
gpt
Not you, Jim, I'm sure; it must be, therefore, an unexpected pleasure. I'm come to have a smoke and a bit of chat with you, Berry--there isn't a riper Berry than you are in the kingdom--before you go to London, Jim--do you mark?--before you go to London--ha, ha! ho, ho! But, zounds! how pale and shaky you're looking, and before this rousing fire, too! D--n thee, villain! shouted Burnham, jumping suddenly up from his chair, and dashing his pipe to fragments on the floor.
human
I can't play with thee any longer. Tell me--when did the devil teach thee to stuff coat-collars with the spoils of murdered men, eh?
gpt
You're caught, scoundrel!--nicked, trapped, found out, and by whom, think you? Why, by deaf, paralytic, Margery, whose old eyes have never wearied in watching you from the hour you slew and robbed her good old master till to-day, when you dreamed yourself alone, and she discovered the mystery of the coat-collar.
human
Let me go! gasped the miscreant, down whose pallid cheeks big drops of agony were streaming.
gpt
Take all, and let me go.