Eventually, the strong representations made by the lawyer of the
much greater unpleasantness, and the very much to be deprecated
effect, of entering the court as an unwilling witness in forced
obedience to a mandate from the tribunal, decided the wretched
Marchese to allow himself to be led down to the carriage.
Even as he came, bent and shaking, down the great staircase of the
Palazzo leaning on Fortini's arm, and had to pass, in crossing the
hall to the carriage, all the servants of his household, most of
whom had not seen him since the evening of the last day of Carnival,
and who were urged by curiosity to take this opportunity of looking
at their terribly-changed master, it seemed to him that his
martyrdom had commenced.
He passed through the streets of the city with the blinds of the
carriage drawn down, and with his eyes closed as he lay thrown back
into the corner of it: but, as he felt it draw up at the entrance to
the "prefettura," he suddenly grasped the lawyer's hand, and Fortini
felt, with a shudder, that his hand was as cold as that of a corpse.
He was altogether in such a state that Signor Fortini began to fear
that there really would be some catastrophe in the court before the
business of the day could be concluded.
With the aid of a servant on one side and of the lawyer on the
other, however, he was got out of the carriage, and, almost
supporting him, the lawyer, who had made all his arrangements
previously, led him into the building by a private door and to the
chamber in which the tribunal was sitting by a private passage used
only by the magistrates, and opening into the court in the immediate
vicinity of the seats occupied by them, by the side of which a chair
had been assigned to the Marchese.
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