An' the court-house so full that the people were bothered.
Attorneys an' criers were just upon smothered;
An' counsellers almost gev over for dead.
The jury sat up in their box overhead;
An' the judge on the bench so detarmined an' big,
With his gown on his back, and an illigent wig;
Then silence was called, and the minute 'twas said
The court was as still as the heart of the dead,
An' they heard but the turn of a key in a lock,--
An' Shamus O'Brien kem into the dock.--
For a minute he turned his eye round on the throng,
An' he looked at the irons, so firm and so strong,
An' he saw that he had not a hope nor a friend,
A chance of escape, nor a word to defend;
Then he folded his arms as he stood there alone,
As calm and as cold as a statue of stone;
And they read a big writin', a yard long at laste,
An' Jim didn't hear it, nor mind it a taste,
An' the judge took a big pinch iv snuff, and he says,
"Are you guilty or not, Jim O'Brien, av you plase?"
An' all held their breath in the silence of dhread
As Shamus O'Brien made answer and said:
"My lord, if you ask me, if ever a time
I have thought any treason, or done any crime
That should call to my cheek, as I stand alone here,
The hot blush of shame, or the coldness of fear,
Though I stood by the grave to receive my death-blow,
Before God and the world I would answer you, _No!_'
But--if you would ask me, as I think it like,
If in the rebellion I carried a pike,
An' fought for me counthry from op'ning to close,
An' shed the heart's blood of her bitterest foes,
I answer you, _Yes_; and I tell you again,
Though I stand here to perish, I glory that _then_
In her cause I was willing my veins should run dhry,
An' that _now_ for _her_ sake I am ready to die.
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