"Such had been the truly unfortunate scene in the clerk's office,--the
fatality which made me follow the man going to his death, and my known
enmity of long standing, supported the hypothesis of my guilt. There
was another, and even more fatal circumstance still,--the discovery of
the knife with which George Conway had been slain. That knife was my
own; it was one of peculiar shape, with a handle of tortoise-shell, and
I had often used it in presence of my friends and others. A dozen
persons could make oath to it as my property; but it was not needed;
the scene at the grave made that useless. I evidently did not deny the
ownership of the weapon which had been used in the commission of the
murder. At the very sight of it, on the contrary, in the hands of the
brother of my victim, I had turned pale and fainted!
"This was the condition of things when the special term of the court,
held expressly to try me, commenced at Dinwiddie."
XXII.
THE TRIAL.
"A great crowd assembled on the day of the trial. Judge Conway had
vacated the bench, as personally interested, and the judge from a
neighboring circuit had taken his place.
"Below the seat of the judge sat the jury. Outside the railing, the
spectators were crowded so closely that it was with difficulty the
sheriff made a passage for my entrance.
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