The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1895-05-01

to prison for ten years for manslaugh-
ter That was the compromise effected.
Louis himself had said only that he
didn't remember, but he could not be-
lieve he had committed the crime Rob-
berry? He shrugged his shoulders at
that He insisted that his lawyer should
not reply to the insulting and foolish
suggestion.
But the evidence had shown that
VigOt had all The winnings when the
other members of the party left the two,
and this very money had been found in
Louis pocket. There was only Louis
word that they had played cards again.
Anger? Possibly. Louis could not re-
member, though he knew they had quar-
relied. The judge himself, charging the
jury, said that be never before saw a
prisoner SO frank and outwardly honest,
but warned them that they must not
lose sight Of the crime ITSELF the taking
of human life, whereby woman was
made a widow and a child fatherless
And so with the few remarks the
judge sentenced the young Seigneur to
ten years in prison, and then himself
shaken and pale, left the courtroom hur-
riedly, for Louis Converse's father had
been his friend from boyhood
Louis took his sentence calmly, look
ing the judge squarely in the eyes, and
when the judge stopped he bowed to
him, turned to the jury and said: "Gen-
tlemen, you have ruined my life. You
don't know, and [ don't know, who
killed the man. You have guessed, and
[ take the penalty Suppose I m inno-
cent. How will you feel when the truth
comes out? You've known me more or
less these 20 years. and you We said with
no more knowledge than I've got that I
did this miserable thing. I don't know
but that one Of you did it, but you are
safe, and l take my ten years. -
He turned from them, and as he did
SO he saw a woman looking at him from
"a corner of the courtroom with a
strange, wild expression. At the mo-
ment he saw no more than an excited,
beWildered face, but afterward this face
came and went before him, flashing in
and out C. dark places in hooking
sort of way. AS he went from the
courtroom another woman made her
way to him in spite Of the guards. It
was the little chemists wife, who years
before had been his fathers housekeeper,
who had leen present when he first
opened his Eyes Oh the world.
my poo boy! My poor boyV she
said, olaspi-g his manacled hands.
He kissed her on the cheek, without a
word, and hurried OH into his prison,
and the good world was shut out. In
prison he refused to see all visitors, even
Medallion, the little chemists wife,
and the good Father Fabre. Letters,
too he refused to accept and read. He
had no contact, wished no contact, with
the outer world, but lived his hard,
lonely life ny himself, silent, brooding,
studious, for now books were to him a
pleasure. And he wrote, too, but never
to any soul outside the prison This life
had nothing to do with the world from
which he came, and he meant that it
should not
So perfect prisoner was he that the
warders protected him from visitors,
and he was never but once or twice
stared at, and then he saw nothing,
heard nothing. He had entered his pris
on a wild excitable, dissipated youth,
and he had become mature, quiet,
cold, brooding man. Five years had
done the work of 20. He lived the life
~ hC Il oo1sf0 Of