That the Genoese authorities were
looking for me, on account of some secret understanding that the republic
has with its old enemies, the Savoyards, I frankly allow too; but it was a
matter of gain, and not of blood. I have taken life in my time, Signore,
but it has been in fair combat, whether the cause was just or not."
"Enough has been proved against thee already to justify the use of the
torture in order to have the rest."
"Nay; I do not see the necessity of this appeal," remarked the bailiff.
"There lies the dead, here is his property, and yonder stands the
criminal. It is an affair that only wants the forms, methinks, to be
committed presently to the axe."
"Of all the foul offences against God and man," resumed the Valaisan, in
the manner of one that is about to sentence, "that which hastens a living
soul, unshrived, unconfessed, unprepared, and with all its sins upon it,
into another state of being and into the dread presence of his Almighty
Judge, is the heaviest, and the last to be overlooked by the law. There is
less excuse for thee, Thomaso Santi, for thy education has been far
superior to thy fortunes, and thou hast passed a life of vice and violence
in opposition to thy reason and what was taught thee in youth.
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