He had pushed
forward in haste, not, alas! with the most distant hope of saving Fergus,
but to see him for the last time. I ought to have mentioned that he had
furnished funds for the defence of the prisoners in the most liberal
manner, as soon as he heard that the day of trial was fixed. A solicitor
and the first counsel accordingly attended; but it was upon the same
footing on which the first physicians are usually summoned to the bedside
of some dying man of rank--the doctors to take the advantage of some
incalculable chance of an exertion of nature, the lawyers to avail
themselves of the barely possible occurrence of some legal flaw. Edward
pressed into the court, which was extremely crowded; but by his arriving
from the north, and his extreme eagerness and agitation, it was supposed
he was a relation of the prisoners, and people made way for him. It was
the third sitting of the court, and there were two men at the bar. The
verdict of GUILTY was already pronounced. Edward just glanced at the bar
during the momentous pause which ensued. There was no mistaking the
stately form and noble features of Fergus Mac-Ivor, although his dress
was squalid and his countenance tinged with the sickly yellow hue of long
and close imprisonment.
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