In their
demeanor there was a mild, but a grave, intellectual reserve. If there
was no ferocity nor harshness to chill, neither was there compassion nor
interest to attract. They were men who had long acted under the dominion
of a prudent reason, and whose feelings seemed trained to a perfect
submission to their judgments.
Before these arbiters of his fate Henry Wharton was ushered under the
custody of armed men. A profound and awful silence succeeded his
entrance, and the blood of Frances chilled as she noted the grave
character of the whole proceedings. There was but little of pomp in the
preparations, to impress her imagination; but the reserved, businesslike
air of the whole scene made it seem, indeed, as if the destinies of life
awaited the result. Two of the judges sat in grave reserve, fixing their
inquiring eyes on the object of their investigation; but the president
continued gazing around with uneasy, convulsive motions of the muscles
of the face, that indicated a restlessness foreign to his years and
duty. It was Colonel Singleton, who, but the day before, had learned the
fate of Isabella, but who stood forth in the discharge of a duty that
his country required at his hands. The silence, and the expectation in
every eye, at length struck him, and making an effort to collect
himself, he spoke, in the tones of one used to authority.
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