But thou wilt burst primeval sleep, And thou wilt live my babe to weep; The tenant of a dark abode, Thy tears must flow as mine have flowed.--BYRON.
Summer ripened into autumn. Sybil and her faithful friend employed the golden days of September and October in the graceful and pleasing feminine work of making up garments for the expected little stranger.
But meanwhile, outside the prison walls, a cloud, black as night, was gathering over the young prisoner's doomed head.
The rumor got abroad that the Governor meant to follow up the long respite with a full pardon.
His course in this matter was canvassed and commented upon severely in every bar-room, grocery, street corner, political meeting, and elsewhere.
The press took up the matter, and vindictively reprobated the course of the Governor, putting his conduct upon the motives of partiality for the aristocracy.
Had the murderess been a woman of the people, it said, her life would have paid the forfeit of her crime.
But she was a lady of the county aristocracy, a daughter of the house of Berners; and however notoriously that house had been cursed with demoniac passions, and however deeply dyed with crime, its daughter, however guilty, was not to be held amenable to the laws!
Was such outrageous worship of the aristocracy by partial judges and venal governors to be endured in a country of freemen?
No! the voice of the people would be heard through their organ, a free press! and if not listened to, then it would be heard in thunder at the polls in the coming autumn elections!
Such was the spirit of the people and the press in regard to Sybil.
It was strange how the people and the press clamored for the sacrifice of Sybil Berners' life--the "female fiend," as they did not hesitate to call her, "daughter of demons," "the last of a race of devils, who should have been exterminated long before," they declared.
It was because they honestly ascribed to her a nature she did not possess, and imputed to her a crime she had not committed, thus making her innocently suffer for the sins of her forefathers.
Of course there were honorable exceptions to this general and unmerited reprobation of a guiltless young creature, but these exceptions were mostly among Sybil's own set, and were too few to have any force against the overwhelming weight of public sentiment.