Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/134

110 your teeth were thrust three mouthfuls of barley bread. On the third day they gave you drink, but nothing to eat. They poured into your mouth at three different times, and from three different glasses, a pint of water taken from the common sewer of the prison. The fourth day is come. It is to-day. Now, if you do not answer, you will be left here till you die. Justice wills it."

"Mors rei homagium est bonæ legi," promptly reiterated the serjeant.

"And when you feel yourself dying miserably," resumed the sheriff, "no one will attend you, even when the blood rushes from your throat, your chin, and your armpits, and from every pore, from your mouth to your loins."

"A throtabolla," said the serjeant, "et pabus et subhircis et a grugno usque ad crupponum."

The sheriff continued: "Man, listen to me, because the consequences deeply concern you. If you renounce your execrable silence, and confess, you will only be hanged, and you will have a right to the meldefeoh, which is a sum of money."

"Damnum confitens," said the serjeant, "habeat le meldefeoh. Leges Inæ, chapter the twentieth."

"Which sum," insisted the sheriff, "shall be paid in doitkins, suskins, and galihalpens, according to the provisions of Death Statute III. of Henry V., and you will have the right and enjoyment of scortum ante mortem, and then be hanged on the gibbet. Such are the advantages of confession. Does it please you to respond to justice?"

The sheriff ceased, and waited. The prisoner lay motionless.

The sheriff resumed: "Man, silence is a refuge in which there is more risk than safety. The obstinate man is damnable and vicious. He who is silent before