The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN. 437
thy. Apparently the expressive sound of human feeling recalled the poor
girl from the stupor of fear, which predominated at first over every other
sensation, and awakened her to the no less painful sense of shame and exposure attached to her present situation. Her eye, which had at first glanced
wildly around, was turned on the ground; her cheek, at first so deadly pale,
began gradually to. be overspread with a faint blush, which increased so
fast, that, when in agony of shame she strove to conceal her face, her temples, her brow, her neck, and all that her slender fingers and small palms
could not cover, became of the deepest crimson.
All marked and were moved by these changes, excepting one. It was old
Deans, who, motionless in his seat, and concealed, as we have said, by the
corner of the bench, from seeing or being seen, did nevertheless keep his
eyes firmly fixed on the ground, as if determined that, by no possibility
whatever, would he be an ocular witness of the shame of his house.
" Ichabod!" he said to himself-" JIchabod! my glory is departed!"
While these reflections were passing through his mind, the indictment,
which set forth in technical form the crime of which the panel stood accused,
was read as usual, and the prisoner was asked if she was Guilty, or Not
Guilty.
"Not guilty of my poor bairn's death," said Effie Deans, in an accent
corresponding in plaintive softness of tone to the beauty of her features, and
which was not heard by the audience without emotion.
The presiding Judge next directed the counsel to plead to the relevancy;
that is, to state on either part the arguments in point of law, and evidence
in point of fact, against and in favour of the criminal: after which it is the
form of the court to pronounce a preliminary judgment, sending the cause
to the cognizance of the jury, or assize.
The counsel for the crown briefly stated the frequency of the crime of infanticide, which had given rise to the special statute under which the panel
stood indicted. He mentioned the various instances, many of them marked
with circumstances of atrocity, which had at length induced the King's
Advocate, though with great reluctance, to make the experiment, whether,
by strictly enforcing the Act of Parliament which had been made to prevent
such enormities, their occurrence might be prevented. "He expected," he
said, " to be able to establish by witnesses, as well as by the declaration of
the panel herself, that she was in the state described by the statute. According to his information, the panel had communicated her pregnancy to no
one, nor did she allege in her own declaration that she had done so. This
secrecy was the first requisite in support of the indictment. The same
declaration admitted, that she had borne a male child, in circumstances
which gave but too much reason to believe it had died by the hands, or at
least with the knowledge or consent, of the unhappy mother. It was not,
however, necessary for him to bring positive proof that the panel was accessory to the murder, nay, nor even to prove that the child was murdered at
all. It was sufficient to support the indictment, that it could not be found.
According to the stern, but necessary severity of this statute, she who
should conceal her pregnancy, who should omit to call that assistance
which is most necessary on such occasions, was held already to have
meditated the death of her offspring, a.s an event most likely to be the
consequence of her culpable and cruel concealment. And if, under such
circumstances, she could not alternatively show by proof that the infant
had died a natural death, or produce it still in life, she must, under the
construction of the law, be held to have murdered it, and suffer death
accordingly."
The counsel for the prisoner, Mr. Fairbrother, a man of considerable
fame inhis profession, did not pretend directly, to combat the arguments of
the King's Advocate. He began by lamenting that his senior at the bar,
Mr. Langtale, had been suddenly called to the county of which hoe, was
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