I don't suppose the jury was out twenty minutes were they ?" and the sheriff replied "oh! no, sir," my heart gave a leap, for I was sure that my fate was decided for weal or woe.
I watched the judge until he turned the corner and desiring to be relieved of suspense from my pent-up anxiety, I eagerly asked the sheriff if I were free, but he gruffly answered that "he didn't know." I was sure he did know, but was too mean to tell me.

How could he have been so flinty, when he must have seen how worried I was.
At last the courthouse was reached and I had taken my seat in such a condition of helpless terror that I could not tell one person from another.

Friends and foes were as one, and vainly did I try to distinguish them.

My long confinement, burdened with harrowing anxiety, the sleepless night I had just spent, the unaccountable absence of my mother, had brought me to an indescribable condition.

I felt dazed, as if I were no longer myself.