The Argosy — page 118: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

104 eae Soe POI RE. CROSS. By Joyce DARRELL. CHAPTER V. THE TRIAL. ee forms of the Italian law are very slow, and had things taken their usual course, it is probable that Guido would have lan- guished a year or eighteen months in prison before his trial. But Count Cioronski had some influence in high places, and he strained it to the utmost. A savage haste, a fierce desire to punish seemed to possess him. The murder had wrought a marked change in him. After the kind of epileptic attack which he had on the evening of the funeral, he had apparently recovered his health, but remained moody, sullen, and sub- ject to frequent outbursts of excitement. He urged on the trial incessantly with a persistency suggestive of monomania ; but he shrank from all knowledge of its details. His impatience under interrogation was remarkable, and showed more clearly than anything else how unhinged was his mind. It was im- possible to tell if he regretted his wife, but 1t was plain that he brooded over her end. Great interest was felt in the trial, but small doubt as to its result. It was understood that the Public Prosecutor had rarely had a more neatly fitting piece of ‘circumstantial evidence to bring before the Court. Possibly this happy conviction on the part of the public was helped by the disparity of social condition between the victim and the accused. When a beautiful and high-born woman is murdered, society is laudably anxious for somebody to be punished forthwith. And when the supposed assassin turns out to be a poor wretch who has not a friend in the world, society, disappointed of a piquant scandal, feels that the sooner the wretch is disposed of the better. Generally when the case is an interesting one, some ambitious young advocate offers himself in the prisoner’s defence. But from some cause or other Guido had not received even that cheap proof of interest in his fate, and until the very day before the trial his only chance lay with the humbie lawyer nominated on such occasions by the Court. All at once, however, the papers announced that a rising member of the bar had taken the case up warmly. They added, it was understood that the fee was to be paid by the young woman whom rumour indicated as the accused man’s sweet- heart. ‘This news made a buzz round poor Lucia’s name. Many CONnNICMHOOKSs.eO mn