Few who saw it ever forgot the sight of his handsome
face and commanding presence as he crushed the case of his opponents
like an eggshell, and then with calm and overwhelming force denounced
the woman who with her lover had concocted the cruel plot that robbed
her uncle of life and her cousins of their property, till at the last,
pointing towards her with outstretched hand, he branded her to the jury
as a murderess.
Few in that crowded court have forgotten the tragic scene that followed,
when the trembling woman, worn out by the long anxiety of the trial,
and utterly unnerved by her accuser's brilliant invective, rose from her
seat and cried:
"We did it--it is true that we did it to get the money, but we did not
mean to frighten him to death," and then fell fainting to the ground--or
Geoffrey Bingham's quiet words as he sat down:
"My lord and gentlemen of the jury, I do not think it necessary to carry
my case any further."
There was no applause, the occasion was too dramatically solemn, but the
impression made both upon the court and the outside public, to whom such
a scene is peculiarly fitted to appeal, was deep and lasting.
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