Your
child was stolen, hid from your view, and cast upon the world under
circumstances that left little doubt of his living in bitterness, and
dying under the contempt, if not the curses, of his fellows. All this,
Signor Grimaldi, is the fruit of your own errors. Had you respected the
affections of an innocent girl, the sad consequences to yourself and me
might have been avoided."
"Is this man's history to be believed, Gaetano?" demanded the baron, who
had more than once betrayed a wish to check the rude tongue of the
speaker.
"I do not--I cannot deny it; I never saw my own conduct in this criminal
light before, and yet now it all seems frightfully true!"
Il Maledetto laughed. Those around him thought his untimely merriment
resembled the mockery of a devil.
"This is the manner in which men continue to sin, while they lay claim to
the merit of innocence!" he added. "Let the great of the earth give but
half the care to prevent, that they show to punish, offences against
themselves, and what is now called justice will no longer be a
stalking-horse to enable a few to live at the cost of the rest.
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