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.

436 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
been sequestered as a witness, for the Sheriff is in the use whiles to bry me'
in to witness the declarations at precognitions, and so is Mr. Sharpitlaw;
but I was ne'er like to be sequestered o' land and gudes but ance, and that
was lang syne, afore I was married. - But whisht, whisht! here's the Court
coming."
As he spoke, the five Lords of Justiciary, in their long robes of scarlet,
*faced with white, and preceded by their mace-bearer, entered with the usual
formalities, and took their places upon the bench of judgment.
The audience rose to receive them; and the bustle occasioned by their
entrance was hardly composed, when a great noise and confusion of persons
struggling, and forcibly endeavouring to enter at the doors of the Court-room
and of the galleries, announced that the prisoner was about to be placed at
the bar. This tumult takes place when the doors, at first only opened to
those either having right to be present, or to the better and more qualified
ranks, are at length laid open to all whose curiosity induces them to be
present on the occasion. With inflamed countenances and dishevelled
dresses, struggling with, and sometimes tumbling over each other, in rushed
the rude multitude, while a few soldiers, forming, as it were, the centre of
the tide, could scarce, with all their efforts, clear a passage for the prisoner
to the place which she was to occupy. By the authority of the Court, and
the exertions of its officers, the tumult among the spectators was at length
appeased, and the unhappy girl brought forward, and placed betwixt two
sentinels with drawn bayonets, as a prisoner at the bar, where she was to
abide her deliverance for good or evil, according to the issue of her trial.
We have strict statutes, and most biting lawsThe needful bits and curbs for headstrong steedsWhich, for these fourteen years, we have let sleep,
Like to an o'ergrown lion in a cave,
That goes not out to prey.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
" EUPHEMIA DEANS," said the presiding Judge, in an accent in which pity
was blended with dignity, "stand up, and listen to the criminal indictment
now to be preferred against you."
The unhappy girl, who had been stupified by the confusion through which
the guards had forced a passage, cast a bewildered look on the multitude
of faces around her, which seemed to tapestry, as it were, the walls, in one
broad slope from the ceiling to the floor, with human countenances, and
instinctively obeyed a command, which rung in her ears like the trumpet of
the judgment-day.
" Put back your hair, Effle," said one of the macers. For her beautiful
and abundant tresses of long fair hair, which, according to the costume of
the country, unmarried women were not allowed to cover with any sort of
cap, and which, alas! Effie dared no longer confine with the snood or riband,
which implied purity of maiden-fame, now hung unbound and dishevelled
over her face, and almost concealed her features. On receiving this hint
from the attendant, the unfortunate young woman, with a hasty, trembling,
and apparently mechanical compliance, shaded back from her face her
luxuriant locks, and showed to the whole court, excepting one individual, a
countenance, which, though pale and emaciated, was so lovely amid its
agony, that it called forth an universal murmur of compassion and sympa