Randolph, with a smile, "your modesty is equal to your abilities."
At this Pembroke felt himself seized by the legs. The crowd carried him out into the night air where another crowd yelled and shouted, he struggling and breathless, and presenting a more undignified appearance than he had ever imagined himself capable of looking. The next thing he found himself on the court-house steps. While in the din and confusion, he recognized occasionally faces by the light of the swinging lantern in the porch of the building. In a moment the attorney-general of the State appeared by his side—a handsome florid man of sixty. He waved imperiously for silence, and the crowd obeyed.
"My friends," he said, in a strong, musical voice, "our young friend here has made a magnificent fight." (Yells and cheers.) "He has done more than make an eloquent speech. He has mastered the law in the case." (More yells and shouts.) "It was the intention of my colleagues and myself to move for a new trial. We have abandoned that intention." (Yells and shouts wilder and wilder.) "We might possibly get a new trial on technicalities. It would cost the county much, and it would not subserve the cause of justice—for I cheerfully acknowledge to you here, that our young friend has proved conclusively that whoever caused the death of the dead man, the prisoner did not. Now will you not unite with me in giving him three cheers and a tiger!"
