The Illegal Marriage — page 126: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

118 THE ILLEGAL MARRIAGE Ordering an examination of the wounds, Simmons opened the statutes, and glanced furtively at the pages which detailed the duties of a curoner. Very carefully the five men began to study the body, pressing open each wound and testing it with » the knife, as if every man of them had not made up his mind before stepping to the bedside. Not one had any doubt that it was with this instrument the deed had been committed. The question that remained was, who held the knife when the fatal blows had been struck. That it belonged to the house was a fact, the jury thought, which seemed to fasten the crime upon some inmate of the castle; and Stannard was shocked to find that, even before the proceedings had fairly begun, suspicion strongly pointed to Miss Morgan. Standing by her bedside a few moments before, it had occurred to him that some offensive remarks might be made—remarks which he hoped might never reach her ears; but that a jury of sensible men, with only mere circumstantial evidence, could really think her guilty of such a crime, he did not imagine. During the morning, the negroes had been gossip- ing with the neighbors assembled, giving them wildly exaggerated accounts of the scene in the night. They had seen “old marster” lying across the bed, and Miss Ceey standing over him with a knife; one had seen her strike a blow as the door was broken down; others could swear that the dying man, with the last words that he spoke, accused Miss Cecy of the murder. These rumors had been added to and embellished when discussing the affair, and each juror began his labors with the firm conviction that Miss Morgan comicbooks.com —