The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-06

How dare l." he thought, 'how dare I, feeble,
and timid, and useless as I am, call myself a
servant of God, or attempt to minister to other
souls2"
He had thought, like an imbecile, as he told
himself. to be able to awaken the conscience and
compel the public confession of this man, and
the possibility of flight had never presented
itself to his mind, natural and simple as had
been such a course to a creature without re-
morse, continually haunted by personal fears OF
punishment. He. he alone on earth, knew the
mans guilt; he, he alone, had the power to save
Generosa, and could not use the power because
the secrecy of his holy Office was fastened on
him like an iron paddock on his lips.
The days passed him like nightmares; he did
his duties mechanically, scarcely consciously;
the frightful alternative which was set before
him seemed to parch up the very springs of life
itself. He knew that he must look strangely in
the eyes of the people; his voice sounded strange
ly in his own ears; he began to feel that he was
unworthy to administer the blessed bread to the
living, to give the last JUNCTION to the dying; he
knew that he was not at fault, and yet he felt
that he was accursed. Choose what he would, he
must commit some hateful sin.
The day appointed for the trial came, it was
the 10th of May. A hot day, with the bees boom
ing among the acacia flowers, and the
green tree-froes shouting joyously above in the
lex tops, and the lizards running in and out of
the china-rose hedges on the highways. Many
people OF Marca were as witnesses,
and these went to the town in mule-carts or
crazy chaises, with the farm horse put in the
shafts, and grumbled because they would lose
their days labor in their fields, and yet were
pleasurably excited at the idea of seeing Gen
erosa in the prisoners dock, and being able
themselves to tell all they knew, and a great
deal they did not know.
Falko Melegari rode over at dawn by himself;
and Gesualdo, with his housekeeper and sacris-
tan, who were all summoned-to give testimony,
went, as they had no choice but to 90. by the
diligence, which started from SAINT Arturo, and
rolled through the dusty roads and over the
bridges. and past the waysids shrines and shops
and FORCES, across the country to the town.
The Vicar never spoke throughout the four
weary hours during which the rickety and
crowded vehicle. with its poor, starved, bruised
beasts, rumbled on its road through the lovely
shadows and cool sunlight of early morning.
lie held his brevlary in his hand for forms sake,
and, seeing him thus absorbed in holy medita-
ton, as they thought, his garrulous neighbors
did not disturb him, but chartered amongst
themselves. filling the honeysuckle-scented air
with the odors of garlic, and wine, and coarse to-
bacco.
Candida glanced at him anxiously from time
to time, haunted by, she could not have said
what, a vague presentiment Of i'll. His face
looked very strange, she thought, and his closely
locked lips were white as the lips of a corpse.
When the diligence was driven over the stones
OF the town. all the passengers by it descended
at the first wine house which they saw on the
piazza to eat and drink. but he, with never a
word. motioned his housekeeper aside when she
would have pressed food on him, and went into
the great church of the place to pray alone.
The town was hot and dusty and sparsely peo-
Piled. It had brown walls and large brick palaces
untenanted, and ancient towers, also Of brick,
pointing high to heaven. 1t was a place dear to
the memory of lovers of art, for the sake of
some fine paintings of the Senese school which
hung in its churches, and was occasionally Wis
tied by strangers for sake of these; but for the
most part it was utterly forgotten by the world;
and its bridges of many arches, said to have
been builded by Augustus, seldom resounded to
any other echoes than those of the heavy wheels
of the hay or corn wagons coming in from the
pastoral country around.
The courthouse, where all great trials took
place, stood in one of the bare, silent, dusty
squares of the town. 1t had once been the an
cient palace of the Podesta, and had the machic-
olated walls, the turreted towers, and the vast
stairways and frescoed chambers Of a larger and
statelier time than ours. The hall of justice was
a vast chamber, pillared with marble, vaulted
and painted, sombre and grand; it was closely
thronged with country folks; there was a scent
of hay, or garlic, of smoking pipes hastily thrust
into trouser pockets. of unwashed flesh steaming
holly in the crowd and the close air. The judge
was there with his oficers-a renaissance figure
in black square cap and black gown. The &C
cused was behind the cage assigned to such pris-
oners, guarded by carbineers and by the Jail
ers. Gesualdo looked in once from a distant
doorway; then, with a noise in his ears like the
sound of the sea. and a deadly sickness on him,
he stayed without in the audience chamber.
where a breath of air came to him up one of
the staircases, there waiting until his name was
called.
The trial began. Everything was the same as
1t had been in the preliminary examination
which had preceded her committal on the charge
of murder. The same dispositions were made
now that had then been made. In the interval.
the people of Marca had forgotten a good deal.
so added somewhat of their own invention to
make up for the deficiency; but, on the whole,
the testlmony was the same, given with that
large looseness of statement and absolute indif-
ference to fact SO characteristic of the Italian
mind, the Judge, from habit. sitting the chaff
from the wheat in the evidence, with unerring
SKILL, and following with admirable patience the
tortuous windings and the hazy Imagination of
the peasants he examined.
until the third day. These seventy or eighty
hours of suspense were terrible to him He
scarcely broke his fast, or was conscious of what
he did. The whole OF the time was passed by
MIN listening III Tue court OF justice or praying
In the churches. When at last he was sum-
moned a cold sweat bathed his face and hair: his
hands trembled; he answered the interrogation
of the judge and of the advocates almost at ran
dom; his replies seemed scarcely to be that of a
rational being; he passionately affirmed her in.
nocence with delirious repetition and emphasis,
which produced on the minds of the examiners
the contrary effect to that which he endeavored
to create.
This priest knows that she is guilty" thought
the president. He knows it-perhaps he knows
even more-perhaps he was her accomplish
His evidence, his aspect, his wild and contra.
dictory words, did as much harm TO her cause as
he ignorantly strove to do good. From other
witnesses of Marca the judge had learned that a
great friendship had always been seen to exist
between the vicar OF San Bartolo and Generosa
Fe, and that on the morning when the murder
was discovered, the priest had removed the body
of the dead man to the sacristy, forestalling the
officers of justice, and disturbing the scene of
the murder. A strong impression against him