The babble of tongues that had continued most of
the day was hushed to a profound silence in court as he stood and spoke,
for the sincerity and simplicity of the priest were evident to all, and
combined with his eloquence and his strange attractive personality,
dominated all but those whose minds were already made up before entering
the court.
"What charge this day you sustain," began the priest, in a steady low
voice, with his searching eyes bent on the faces before him, "and what
account you are to render at the dreadful Day of Judgment, whereof I
could wish this also were a mirror, I trust there is not one of you but
knoweth. I doubt not but in like manner you forecast how dear the
innocent is to God, and at what price He holdeth man's blood. Here we are
accused and impleaded to the death,"--he began to raise his voice a
little--"here you do receive our lives into your custody; here must be
your device, either to restore them or condemn them. We have no whither
to appeal but to your consciences; we have no friends to make there but
your heeds and discretions." Then he touched briefly on the evidence,
showing how faulty and circumstantial it was, and urged them to remember
that a man's life by the very constitution of the realm must not be
sacrificed to mere probabilities or presumptions; then he showed the
untrustworthiness of his accusers, how one had confessed himself a
murderer, and how another was an atheist. Then he ended with a word or
two of appeal.
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