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may belong. The present charges have been fully established against you, it is my duty to inform you that you have but few days to remain on the earth. His Lords up then pronounced with due, solemnity, the sentence of the law.

The scene altogether was singularly striking and impresive. The prisoner stood with unblenching firmness. Not a shade passed across his countenance, not a muscle of his features was discomposed during the solemn address of the Lord Justice Clerk consigning him to death. At this moment, as indeed throughout the whole trial, he betrayed that indifference to his situation which could only spring from utter recklessness of life, or be the calm of settled despair—The female prisoner, on the other hand, was greatly agitated. During the whole of the trial she had betrayed great restlessness and anxiety. Her face was often deadly pale, and although the expression of her features was not upon the whole disagreeable, it frequently assumed a haggard and deathlike aspect. At the moment when sentence was pronounced on Burke, she was drowned in tears, and seemed to feel deeply for the wretch who had evidently no feeling for himself.

The streets in the vicinity of the Court were crowded till a late hour in the morning; but the police succeeded throughout the whole day and night, in keeping the multitude at a distance from the doors of the Court, preserving the communication with it uninterrupted. At the same time every precaution was taken to preserve the public peace. The High Constables of the city and its dependencies mustered at six o'clock in the evening, and the police received a temporary reinforcement of upwards of three hundred men, who were on duty the whole time. In order, however, to express effectually any disturbance, the infantry in the castle and the cavalry at Piershill, were under orders to march at a moments notice into the city. Notwithstanding, this, however, a mob assembled in the course of the night, and proceeded