But,
Signor Marchese, I dare not recommend you to do so. The facts, as I
said, are too strong for you. Remember, too, that you do not throw
away any chance by flight. For the only possible circumstance that
could exonerate you would be the discovery that the deed was done by
some other; and should that ever be proved or provable, you would at
once return, plainly stating that you fled, not from guilt, but from
a due appreciation of the fatal weight of suspicion that the
circumstances and the facts cast on you. In such a case, in such a
very improbable case, I should not hesitate to testify that, being
by accident made aware of the circumstances, I had recommended and
urged you to fly. No innocent man is bound to suffer for the
misfortune of lying under a false suspicion if he can help it. You
cannot face the suspicion that will rest upon you; instant flight is
the only course open to you."
"Did you not say yourself at the gate just now, Signor Fortini,"
said Ludovico, making a strong effort to recover the use of his
almost stunned faculties"--did you not yourself say that it was
evidently a case of sudden death, probably from heart disease?"
"Pshaw! to the people there; to those blockheads at the gate, I said
so, of course I did; but the medical folks will soon find out all
about that."
"But again, as you remarked very truly, the only possible motive
that I could be suspected of having for wishing the death of this
unfortunate woman must be supposed to arise from my knowledge of the
fact that my uncle had proposed marriage to her.
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