The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-02-04
ANN BEDES DEBT.

The judges were in their places.
Outside the fog weighed heavily upon
the shapeless building, effaced the walls
and glued itself to the windows, conceal
ing their frosty Towering.
In the hall itself the air was thick and
sitting. 1t smelled ofsheep skins, peas
ants, eau de vie, and the leaden ventila-
OTIS in the upper glasses of the skylight
turned slowly and slothfully.
The jurors, too, leaned wearily against
the backs of their chairs. One of them
had closed his eyes and let his hand fall
inert, lulled to somnolence by the monot-
onous scratching of the clerks pen.
Another tapped and softly beat the rat
A-plan with his pencil on the table
The president pushed his spectacles to
the tip of his nose and mopped his damp
brow, his stern gray eyes, with a glacial
stare, bent fixedly upon the door whence
would issue the culprits in course of
trial, and on whom they waited to pro-
nounce the sentence.
''Is there not still another oner' de-
manded he, presently, of the sleepy look
ing tipstaff at his elbow in hard, re-
Sonant voice.
''One," responded the other; .'a girl"
"Eh bienl bring her in then" said the
president
The crier called, the door opened, the
girl entered.
"A current of fresh air glided in with
her and softly famed the faces and
tickled the lashes of the curious assist
ants. At the same moment a ray of
sunlight pierced the shrouding fog and
danced between the frosty etchings of
the panes across the dusty walls and
furniture of the hall of audience.
"a girl'' had said the tipstaff-a child,
rather, scarcely more than on the verge
ef maidenhood, and so pretty in her little
furred jacket, embroidered with wreaths
and blossoms and fitting like the skin the
rounded waist, straight and slender as
the stem of a young palm. Her black
eyes were lowered to the floor, but her
white brow was clear and unclouded.
"What is it that you have done, my
child?" questioned the president indiffer-
emily.
The girl nervously rearranged her
handkerchief that covered her head,
caught her breath heavily, then answered,
signing;
My affair is sad, M. lie President,
very, very sad"
Her voice, soft and dolorous, went to
the heart like good music, that, even
when one hears it no longer, seems still
to vibrate in the air and change every
thing by its mysterious influence.
The faces of the jurors were no longer
SO morose. The portrait of the king, and
farther away still of the Judex Curie,
appeared to make to her from the silent
wall benignant signs, encouraging her
To bravely recount the affair $50 very.
very sad
--But see you, said she, ''this writing;
-'it will tell you better than I can"
Only she had first to seek it; to unclasp
the buttons of her corsage and draw it
from her bosom-a piece of cracking
parchment, stamped and closed with the
ponderous official seal.
"a Judgment" murnured the presi-
dent, running his eye over the paper, t.a
judgment against Anne Bede, assigned
to begin today a punishment of six
months imprisonment"
The girl nodded sorrowfully; the hand
Rerchief, loosened by the movement, fell
from her head, and a heavy tress of her
long black hair, all unbound, yelled her
features. 1t sought, perhaps, to shield
them from the gaze of the people, for if
she was white as a lily a while ago, she
was purple with shame this moment.
'|It is week since we received it, y
stammered she in broken voice sThe
court officer brought it hiNself and ex-
planned what it wished to tell us, and
my poor mother said to me: Thou must
go, my child. the law is the law, and
one should not take it as a pleasantly.
1 have come, therefore, toto begin the
six monthsi'
The president wiped his glasses, then
wiped them again, his cold. stern gaze
seeking the faces of his colleagues, the
windows, the floor, the great iron stove
through whose grated door fiery eyes
seemed to sparkle and threateningly re
gard him.
-'The law" murmured he, 1.-THE law ii
the lawl"
And he read anew the summary before
him, the black, sprawling scratches acros,
the white page, declaring ''Anne Bede
condemned to six months Imprisonment
for receiving stolen goods
Meanwhile the leaden ventilator haG
quickened its pace and spun furiously
Outside the wind had risen, and now i
snook the windows, whistled through
the crevices and seemed to hiss remorse
1essly about the ears of the gaping
crowd:
1.-The law, yes, the law is the lawl''