"To one resolution I had adhered in spite of the remonstrances of all
my friends,--to employ no counsel. In this determination nothing could
shake me. A disdainful pride sustained me, mingled with bitter
obstinacy. If I, the representative of one of the oldest and most
honorable families in the county of Dinwiddie was to be branded as a
murderer,--if my past life, my family and personal character, did not
refute the charge,--if I was to be dragged to death on suspicion,
gibbeted as a murderer, because some felon had stolen my pocket-knife,
and committed a crime with it,--then I would go to my death unmoved. I
would disdain to frame explanations; let the law murder _me_ if it
would; no glib counsel should save my life by technicalities; I would
be vindicated by God and my past life, or would die.
"Such was my state of mind, and such the origin of my refusal to employ
counsel. When the court now assigned me counsel, I rose and forbade
them to appear for me. In the midst of a stormy scene, and with the
prosecuting attorney sitting dumb in his chair, resolved to take no
part in the trial, the witnesses appeared upon the stand, and, rather
by sufferance than the judge's consent, the jury proceeded to
interrogate them.
"The circumstances which I have detailed to you were all proved in the
clearest manner; the altercation in the clerk's office on the day of
the murder; my long enmity against him, dating back more than twenty
years; the fact that I had followed him out of the village just at dusk
on the fatal night; and the discovery of my knife in the tall grass by
the roadside near the body.
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