Now the result which
it had been desired that he should contribute to had been brought
about, or as good as brought about, without him. What did he want
there now?
There was an old usher about the court, however, whose advancing
years were beginning to make him disagreeably conscious that the
time was at hand when a sentence to a long term of purgatory--to say
nothing of any severer doom--might make it exceedingly desirable to
him to stand well with all those who are understood to have
influence with the government in the world beyond the grave; and,--
if there had been no such person, the friar would have known
somebody--some old or young woman, probably--or he would have known
some other friar who knew some such, who would have been able to
influence some brother, lover, or husband, in the way he wished. As
it was, Father Fabiano had no difficulty at all in conveying the
message he wished to communicate to the judges.
They turned back to their places in the court, to the surprise and
sudden awakening of new interest in the audience, and ordered that
the new witness who had presented himself should be admitted and
heard.
And Father Fabiano, bowed with age, and his hoary head bent down on
his breast, but neither shivering nor shaking, advanced to the
witness-table. The crucifix was lying on it, and the friar, with the
manner of a man recognizing in a new employment tools which he is
well used to, at once stretched out his emaciated and claw-like
hand, and made oath that he was about to speak the truth.
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