Alas! Why did they preserve so miserable and detested a life?
It was surely that I might fulfil my destiny, which is now drawing to a close.

Soon, oh, very soon, will death extinguish these throbbings and relieve me from the mighty weight of anguish that bears me to the dust; and, in executing the award of justice, I shall also sink to rest.

Then the appearance of death was distant, although the wish was ever present to my thoughts; and I often sat for hours motionless and speechless, wishing for some mighty revolution that might bury me and my destroyer in its ruins.
The season of the assizes approached.

I had already been three months in prison, and although I was still weak and in continual danger of a relapse, I was obliged to travel nearly a hundred miles to the country town where the court was held.

Mr.Kirwin charged himself with every care of collecting witnesses and arranging my defence.