His Other Wife: A Novel — page 362: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

354 SENTENCED AMD RECLAIMED. well, and to whose love you owed the fortune which you craved. Probably the greatness of this fortune caused the greatness of your offense; and I am fully satisfied, upon the evidence given against you, that avarice was your . motive, aud hypocrisy afforded you the means of com- mitting the dark deed. I think it impossible to find any, even of the meanest capacity, among the numerous audience that stand around you, who can entertain a doubt of your guilt. ‘‘The punishment which your crime deserves—which the public has a right to demand, and which I must inflict upon you—is less speedy but more ignominious than death. ‘The sentence which I now pronounce upon you is, that you be taken hence to the place allotted for your confinement by the laws of the State, and that you be subject to imprisonment and hard labor among the com- mon convicts of the State Prison for the space of thirty years. That the fortune of sixty thousand dollars which you received from Rachel, your wife, be restored unto her, with the accumulation of legal interest, and that the rest and residue of your possessions be confiscate to the State under whose laws you are judged and punished; and may God be merciful, and bless to you this grievous chastise- ment for your most grievous offense.” A dead hush succeeded and endured for the space of a minute. The prisoner might have been turned to stone for all cEomicbooks.com