Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-04-11

1uS lHouBHtiuliy At IiLi lOT sOIUe
moments, there must have been some
very hard swearing"
'rhere was" replied Everard
"There was perjury on the part of
one Witness"
ats motive"
"TO shield the real culprit."
| "The law gives you remedy If you
can but prove the perjury" said the
| Judge.
II do not wish to prosecute" replied
Everard Besides, what court can
give me back those years of imprison-
ment?
"How many did you server"
eighteen"
Eighteen years." returned the
judge, his thoughts running back
through that period of ume, and tax
ing count of the things that had oc-
CURED and the changes that had been
wrought in it; eighteen years! And
you we're then a young man"
Evcrard smiled sadly at the contrast
these words implied.
I "Then, you are only recently en-
largcd?" Sir William added.
Last Monday. have a ticket Of
| leave"
| The Judge looked at the broken and
prematurely aged man with an inward
shudder. lie thought OF the long line
Of malefactors he had sentenced, not
only to imprisonment. but even to
death, and wondered If he could have
pronounced those sentences if he had
been doomed to see them carried out.
4 well remember the pain with
which | passed your sentence" he
said. "A judge need have a heart of
iron and rerves of steel. But the evil
dcnce was so clear
you could do no otherwise. The
jury found me guilty, and l could not
clear myself"
eighteen years. continued the
judge In voice which had a CULVER
In II. 81 am an old man, Doctor Ever
ard, an old man, and 1t can not be
many years at the latest before
must stand ut the bar Of n Justice
that can not miscarry, but If thought
that | had condemned n fcllow-crca-
ture unjustly to eighteen years i'm
prisonmcnt with hard labor"
"Do not think 1t, dear sir" interrupt
cd Everard, trying to soothe the rising
agitation In the old mans mind; "the
injustice can not be laid to your
charge No human tribunal can be
infalllble; but rs you say, there is 4
Judge who can not err, and when you
and | are confronted at that bar.
your verdict upon me will be reversed
without blame to Yourself"
81 trust so, trust So" replied the
old man; and, i'm the meantime, |
hope that you bear me no illwill."
"lIraven forbid. whose instrument
you are" returned Evcrard. taking
and warmly pressing the hand the
judge offered him.
~ shall desire your further ac-
Uuaintancc, SIR said the old gentle
man, when the train steamed into the
Oldport Station; ''if not now, in
better world than this"
And they parted, Ererard leaving
the carriage, and standing with
throbbing heart on the platform, while
his portmnntcau was placed on II fly,
and thinking how great was the con
traSt between his manner of leaving
the station and returning to It, He
left 1t in the keen wintry fog, with
handcufrcd wrists, In charge of con
stables, and returned shaking hands
with his Judge in the warm June sun
shine
II was strange to see the little we'll
known town hasking in the summer
heat, and filed with the familiar,
homcly stir of the market day. just as
II had done all those years ago, and
he looked about mt the houses and
shops. with their friendly air of rec
ognition, to see il there were any
faces he knew. There stood the town
hail. the earliest scene of his terrible
humiliation. with it's familiar colon
made and balcony, its clock striking
four in the old homel like tones, and
the gilt figures on its dial burning in
men We're standing in the square in
front of 1t, ms they had done in the
days of his trial. He recognized one,
Il ayhcadcd man In the stripes and
dress of Il sergeant, rs the middle
aged constable who had conducted him
to the magisterial presence, and Won
dercd If the man remembered him.
The carriage seemed ut the same
time to crawl and to fly in the medley
Of feelings which urged him onward
and backward. Would they never get
out of Oldport? The streets were cum
hercd with carriers carts and wagons;
droves OF pigs and bcwildered cattle;
dense Cooking farmers, shabbily dres-
sed, but concealing 4 fund of shirwd
sense beneath their Stolid counter
ances, and having well-lined pocket
books in their queer old cont-pocketS,
and rnSer.looking lahorers whose
heavy air of stupidity was nalf as
sumed and half on the surface.
4,