The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1853-08-04

pose, he would be made accountable, for
he was already suspected.
Whether he relcnted from motives OF
compassion or policy, or from the com
punctious horror of double murder,
witness did not know. The prisoner
told him to rise, and compelling him to
take the most horrid and unnatural
oaths to secure his silence, left him with
menace, that if he knew how to pardon
he knew also how to avenge.
"The weight of this horrible secret
my Lord" continued Claude, "becamC
an intolerable burthcn. | started a
my own shadow | was wasting away
with feverish anxiety and had half re-
solved to make confession to magls-
tratc, when Antoine De Lormc came a
few days since to the kiln, and by ms
questions relative to the unaccountable
fate of Sevos, determined me in my
better resolutions"
He had nothing to add, save thai
during the former examination of the
prisoner, he heard man say that he
knew enough to hang Cape, but haC
conscientious scruples about volunteer
ing his testimony. Casting another lool
upon Cape, which he seemed to sustain
with difficulty, the witness left the stand
The prisoner was rcmanded to hi
dungeon, to be brought in the mornin,
to hear his sentence.
The next day the Hall of Justice wa
throngcd with an indignant and enrageC
populace, the furious rabble loading the
miserable victim with every epithet Of
opprobrium and execration as he passed
along; and when the judge lose to
speak, so eager were the spectators, that
the Hall was instantly hushed into deep
and unnatural silence.
"Jean Cape" said he, permitting
his words to fall slow and distinctly upon
the ear of the criminal, /" the hours you
shall remain upon earth are fast dimin-
ishing. Time would be wasted, in in
dulging any longer doubt of your guilt
and the forfeiture Of your miserable life
will be just, however poor atonement
for your revolving crime. You will die
no easy or common death, and however
mercy may sicken, or the compassionate
weakness of human nature may shuddel
at its circumstances of seeming cruelty
yet the avengcr Of blood is in your foot
steps, and there is for you no city Of re
fuge. The forgiveness of Heaven yol
may supplicate, for its mercies are un
limited, but the pity of man you dar'
not ask, and need not hope. ask yo,
for the sake form, and not because L be
lieve there will be found virtue or hell
to you, in the indulgence, if you hav,
anything to say which may extenuat,
your guilt, or hold out hope of human
deliverance."
My Lord" said the prisoner, rising
slowly, with face colorless as the vest
ments of the grave, but speaking with
the self-possession of despair, " L know
not wherefore it is that Heaven has been
pleased in it's inscrutable wisdom, to
visit me with this desolating judgment
Certainly, it must have been for some
deadly and unexpiated sin, of which, in
its displeasure, it has caused me to lose
the memory. l can say nothing, my
Lord, which shall avail me anything in
this my extremity. But trust in the
righteous dispensation of a just Provi.
dence, that the plot of this fatal tragedy
will one day be developed-that the
blood of an innocent man shall not be
shed like water, to dry up as quickly
Surely, there is retributive justice,
dilatory though it sometimes be {; and
when the time shall come in which the
dark mystery, whereof 1 am this day
made the unhappy sufferer, shall become
a plain tale, the repentant testimony OF
those who have charged their souls with
the murder of an unoffending man, will
not be wanting, to the truth of the last
words l shall eyer utter.
81 protest before God, to whose pre-
sence l am Fastening SO rapidly, the
unborn child is not more guiltless than
L, of the foul crime for which l am
wearing these bonds. l pronounce the
whole history Of Claude Maurice, who