Page:Stories after Nature.pdf/32

8 a wandering beggar, she made her way through the press in the court, just as Lysius was being carried away to prison; and, standing up before her father, she said, "Hold, you man of justice, truly blind; you know not what you do! What poor things, ye gods! are mortals in your eyes, if the gravest of us thus play with each other's lives. Be it known unto you this man is innocent. I slew him who is dead, and confess myself guilty of the murder: my motive was jealousy; his crime, neglect of me. Set him free, I pray you: and, O ye gods, take of me the weary life that I have held so long, nor ever dreamt of using it as I now do." It now being the close of the court, and the judges having some difference in this affair, suspended the execution; and ordered, that early in the morning they should appear before them to pass sentence on the woman and release the accused; so they were both conveyed out, and put into two dungeons. Now Julia, feeling for her father, and to put him off his guard from discovering her, had written to him, saying, "If I do not return to-night, consider me safe and happy." So that he felt no alarm, having full confidence in her; and was inwardly glad that she showed an inclination for any thing. When the morning came, sentence was taken off Lysius, and passed