He acted on the present
occasion precisely as he might have done in the college campus, with all
the benefits of a fair field and a plentiful crowd of backers. Without
duly reflecting whether an accusation of the kind he preferred, at such
a time, to such men, and against one of their own accomplices, would
avail much, if anything, toward the punishment of the criminal--not to
speak of his own risk, necessarily an almost certain consequence from
such an implied determination not to be _particeps criminis_ with any of
them, he approached, and boldly denounced Rivers as a murderous villain;
and urgently called upon those around him to aid in his arrest.
But he was unheard--he had no auditors; nor did this fact result from
any unwillingness on their part to hear and listen to the charge against
one so detested as the accused. They could see and hear but of one
subject--they could comprehend no other. The events of such fresh and
recent occurrence were in all minds and before all eyes; and few,
besides Forrester, either heard to understand, or listened for a moment
to the recital.
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