Page:The Prime Minister by Hall Caine.djvu/120

96  [Going to bookcase, taking down book.] His name was Paul Schiller, wasn't it?  [With surly defiance.] You know it was.  [Finding reference.] Naturalized Englishman, medical doctor, acting as consul for the enemy Government, charged with helping by means of forged passports his compatriots of military age to escape to their own country.  That was a lie!  The case was taken in camera; this is the official report. [Reading.] "After the evidence for Crown, prisoner asked permission to amend his plea. Pleaded guilty. Said he had always, since naturalization, been a loyal subject of his adopted country, but the day after the declaration of war he had received from a secret source a command to assist reservists to cross the Channel. Had first refused, then been threatened with loss of consulate appointment after the war, together with ruin of professional practice. 'As these were my only means of livelihood,' said prisoner,' and I had two children dependent upon me (a son who was a medical student, requiring money for his fees, and a daughter to whom I was devotedly attached), I yielded, in a moment of weakness and temptation, to the merciless threats of the