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TOM AS KING.
187
"Let the prisoner go free—it is the king's will!"
"LET THE PRISONER GO FREE!"Another blush followed this unregal outburst, and he covered his indecorum as well as he could by adding —
"It enrageth me that a man should be hanged upon such idle, hare-brained evidence!"
A low buzz of admiration swept through the assemblage. It was not admiration of the decree that had been delivered by Tom, for the propriety or expediency of pardoning a convicted poisoner was a thing which few there would have felt justified in either admitting or admiring—no, the admiration was for the intelligence and spirit which
