Only the case itself, however, was clear, for, as he and his friends feared, the verdict might possibly be neither in accordance with the law, the facts, nor the convictions of the jury.Eugene's defection had not altered the tone of the Tocsin.
All day long a crowd of men and boys hung about the corridors of the Court-house, about the Square and the neighboring streets, and from these rose sombre murmurs, more and more ominous.
The public sentiment of a community like Canaan can make itself felt inside a court-room;and it was strongly exerted against Happy Fear.
The Tocsin had always been a powerful agent;Judge Pike had increased its strength with a staff which was thoroughly efficient, alert, and always able to strike centre with the paper's readers; and in town and country it had absorbed the circulation of the other local journals, which resisted feebly at times, but in the matter of the Cory murder had not dared to do anything except follow the Tocsin's lead.The Tocsin, having lit the fire, fed it--fed it saltpetre and sulphur--for now Martin Pike was fighting hard.
The farmers and people of the less urban parts of the country were accustomed to found their opinions upon the Tocsin.They regarded it as the single immutable rock of journalistic righteousness and wisdom in the world.Consequently, stirred by the outbursts of the paper, they came into Canaan in great numbers, and though the pressure from the town itself was so strong that only a few of them managed to crowd into the court-room, the others joined their voices to those sombre murmurs outdoors, which increased in loudness as the trial went on.