? ? ? ? The court now pronounced its late decision void, since it had been made under a law which had no actual existence.
? ? ? ? Great excitement ensued immediately. The news swept abroad over the whole island that the palladium of the public liberties was lost -- maybe treasonably destroyed. Within thirty minutes almost the entire nation were in the courtroom -- that is to say, the church. The impeachment of the chief magistrate followed, upon Stavely's motion. The accused met his misfortune with the dignity which became his great office. He did not plead, or even argue; he offered the simple defense that he had not meddled with the missing law; that he had kept the state archives in the same candle-box that had been used as their depository from the beginning; and that he was innocent of the removal or destruction of the lost document.
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