There would be little interest in detailing at length the
proceedings of the trial; since nothing was elicited that would be
in any way new to the reader, or that was calculated to throw any
fresh light on the circumstances to be inquired into, until the
business in hand was nearly concluded.
Every tenderness had been shown to the misfortunes and to the
terrible state of suffering of the Marchese. A full statement of his
own conduct at the ball, and on the following morning, had been
extracted, with very little indulgence in the process, from the
Conte Leandro, from whose white and pasty face the perspiration had
rained beyond the power of any handkerchief to control it, while he
described himself as an eavesdropper, an informer, and a spy. And
all that had been required from the Marchese Lamberto was the
admission that the Conte Leandro's statements, as far as regarded
what had taken place at the ball, were correct.
But the fact was that the case was well-nigh prejudged before the
professed trial began. All Ravenna, including the police
authorities, who had investigated the matter, and the judges who
came into court well instructed in all that had been done, and all
that could be known upon the subject, had made up their minds that
the stranger girl was and must have been the criminal. It was
infinitely more agreeable to everybody concerned to suppose that
such should be the case rather than that such a damning blot should
fall on the noblest house in the city, and that in the person of one
of the most popular men in it; and, at the same time, it must be
owned that the case was so strong against Paolina that a prejudice
against her could hardly be called a corrupt one.
Pages:
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643