Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/251

 It all went past her ear like a confused noise without sense or meaning.

She vaguely comprehended that some one whom she did not know was pleading in her favour, and trying to set her free.

But she was always thinking, 'In Mantua they condemned him, all innocent as he was; men pleaded in his favour too, he said, but they condemned him; so will they me.'

She had no hope that they would understand her and let her go.

The woman Pomfilia gave simple, straightforward testimony as to the exceeding love she had borne the little child, and the despair its death had caused her. The woman added that she herself did not know that it was wrong to have said nothing, and made the little grave there; had the child lived it would have been carried to Telamone and baptised there. That she knew would have been done.

The evidence of the woman, timid before the law, but honest, went far with the judge and with the listening audience of seafaring folk and peasants.

Then they brought forth the little traitor Zefferino, who grew white and shook as with a palsy when he looked across the hall and saw her face.