Pagina 125 di 483

We passed a few sad hours until eleven o'clock, when the trial

was to commence. My father and the rest of the family being

obliged to attend as witnesses, I accompanied them to the court.

During the whole of this wretched mockery of justice I suffered

living torture. It was to be decided whether the result of my

curiosity and lawless devices would cause the death of two of my

fellow beings: one a smiling babe full of innocence and joy, the

other far more dreadfully murdered, with every aggravation of

infamy that could make the murder memorable in horror. Justine

also was a girl of merit and possessed qualities which promised

to render her life happy; now all was to be obliterated in an

ignominious grave, and I the cause!

A thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty of

the crime ascribed to Justine, but I was absent when it was

committed, and such a declaration would have been considered as

the ravings of a madman and would not have exculpated her who

suffered through me.