The courtroom is packed with people, "a firmament, all bright with gleaming eyes" — and every one fixed on Fagin. As the judge delivers his charge to the jury, the accused searches their faces in vain for signs of hope. Looking about at the spectators, he discerns nothing but unanimous desire for his being convicted. While the jury is out, Fagin's attention is occupied with trivia, although he is never completely free from "one oppressive overwhelming sense of the grave . . . at his feet."
The jury returns and the verdict is delivered — guilty. There is a roar of approval from the people at the word that Fagin will die on Monday. This approval is echoed by the crowd outside. When asked if he has anything to say, Fagin can only mutter that he is an old man. While the sentence of death is pronounced, the condemned man stands dumb and motionless. He mechanically goes with the jailers, overcoming his disbelief enough to shake a fist at the prisoners' visitors, who greet him with taunts and shouts.
After being searched, the old criminal is left alone in a cell for the condemned. He sits on a stone bench and tries to collect his thoughts. Gradually the words of the sentence come into focus: he is to be hanged by the neck until dead. He remembers the men he has seen die on the scaffold, "some of them through his means." Victims of his villainy may have spent their last days in this very cell, like many others awaiting execution.
In terror, Fagin beats his hands raw against the door and walls, screaming for light. A candle is brought, and a man who is to watch the prisoner enters the cell. Through the dreadful night, the church bell tolls away the remaining hours of the old culprit's life.
When the religious come to pray with him, he repels them with curses. Saturday passes and that night Fagin is aware that he will live through but one more night after this. He is oblivious to the men who take turns standing the death watch. Most of the time he just sits, "awake, but dreaming."
