Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/421

 The Red Robe says the judge.

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ness does get so far as‘to tell the substance of

assures his honor that he will not undertake anything of the sort again. Then the prisoner himself is brought in by two gendamies in the presence of the judge and his assistant. He looks like a sturdy working man puzzled and distressed beyond measure. The judge begins by dictating a formal statement of the case, by which it appears to the surprise of the prisoner that his counsel did not attend at every step of the proceed ings up to the present, also that the prisoner has before this refused to answer and was remanded to jail. The judge asks him if he will talk now. He consents and the judge then repeats all that the lieutenant told him and urges him to confess the murder. The prisoner stoutly denies it. The judge goes to him and describes what may have happened—a dispute about money, a sudden quarrel, a blow. The prisoner denies. The judge asks whether he hired some one else to do it. The prisoner denies. The judge re minds him that he is a Catholic and threatens him with the fear of hell. The prisoner does not fear hell because he denies the act. Then the judge leans over and whispers in his ear that his disgrace will fall upon his children. "You love them, don't you? Tell me. They are asking about you. They love you—be muse they don't know yet." Then the poor prisoner sobs terribly, "My poor little ones." And the judge takes heart. “Come now. There is some good left in you. The jury will appreciate any confession which you make now. You may escape the supreme punishment. You are still young. You have long years before you to expiate your crime. You could deserve grace, and perhaps see again your children who will have pardoned you. Trust me. Confess in your own inter est." He puts his hand on the prisoner's shoulder and continues in a soft voice, "It is true, then? If you cannot speak—only make some sign. Then I shall know it to be true. What? I don't understand what you say. It was you——was it not? It was you?"

what he saw-—a band of vagabonds coming from the house of the murder. The judge twists his testimony up as to the precise date and the exact number of vagabonds and the question as to whether the witness saw them shut the door or not, and sends the witness away with a warning not to mix in such mat ters as playing at suppositions before a court of justice. The witness is glad to escape and

Then the judge tells him that if he can establish an alibi he may get off. The prisoner declares that he was at home during all the night of the murder. But after a struggle he admits that he went out on the mountain to search for a horse that he had lost when smuggling him across the border. But he did not ﬁnd the horse and he has

responds the deputy as he glances at a paper on the judge's desk, and adds, "I have just

caught sight of the name of a case against so and so, a friend of mine—one of my best election agents, and I assure you that there is

nothing in it. I know that my friend is incapable of the things he is accused of. I told that prosecuting oﬂicer so, but now I see that he persists in pushing the case against him." The judge shrugs his shoulders and replies, "All that I can say is that I will study these charges with especial care." Says the deputy patronizingly, “I think too much of you to ask more than that. And now do not let me waste any more of your valuable time. Keep up your courage." He goes out with the same festive air with which he entered. The judge bows until he is out of sight, and as he returns to his desk says to himself. "I don't think our deputy will have a very bad opinion of me, and the fact is I did, indeed, have a pretty good scent when I suspected that prisoner. ‘Now I must make him confess everything as soon as possible." At that moment a telegram is brought in, directed to the judge. When the messenger departs the judge reads the telegram as fol lows:— "Diana is in jail. The papers in the case were sent yesterday to the attorney-general." He is much disturbed, exclaiming, "This means me, then. Damn those women." He controls himself, settles himself at his desk,

and calls his assistant to go to work. The ﬁrst order he gives is to set at liberty the deputy's friend and to dismiss the case against him. Then he orders in the witness for the defense in the murder case, the countryman above mentioned. He bullies this witness with arrogant criticism of his way of telling his story until the man, who respects the judge as an oracle of truth and justice, is made embarrassed. Yet the wit

"It was not me," sobs the prisoner.