midday
Nerved by an active resolution , Adam took a morsel of bread and drank some wine . He was haggard and unshaven , as he had been yesterday , but he stood upright again , and looked more like the Adam Bede of former days . The Verdict THE place fitted up that day as a court of justice was a grand old hall , now destroyed by fire . The midday light that fell on the close pavement of human heads was shed through a line of high pointed windows , variegated with the mellow tints of old painted glass . Grim dusty armour hung in high relief in front of the dark oaken gallery at the farther end , and under the broad arch of the great mullioned window opposite was spread a curtain of old tapestry , covered with dim melancholy figures , like a dozing indistinct dream of the past . It was a place that through the rest of the year was haunted with the shadowy memories of old kings and queens , unhappy , discrowned , imprisoned ; but to-day all those shadows had fled , and not a soul in the vast hall felt the presence of any but a living sorrow , which was quivering in warm hearts . But that sorrow seemed to have made it itself feebly felt hitherto , now when Adam Bede 's tall figure was suddenly seen being ushered to the side of the prisoner 's dock .