At the Mercy of TiberiusEvans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
History
At the Mercy of Tiberius
Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
Rome -- History -- Tiberius, 14-37 -- Fiction
Could the hundreds who watched and waited ever forget the sight of that
superb, erect figure, that exquisite face, proud as Hypatia's, patient
as Perpetua's; or the sound of that pathetic, unwavering voice?
Mournfully, yet steadily, she raised her great grey eyes, darkened by
the violet shadows suffering had cast, and looked at her judges.
"I am guiltless of any and all crime. I have neither robbed, nor
murdered; and I am neither principal, nor accomplice in the horrible
sin imputed to me. I know nothing of the chloroform; I never touched
the andiron; I never saw Gen'l Darrington but once. He gave me the gold
and the sapphires, and I am as innocent of his death, and of the
destruction of his will as the sinless little children who prattle at
your firesides and nestle to sleep in your arms. My life has been
disgraced and ruined by no act of mine, for I have kept my hands, my
heart, my soul, as pure and free from crime as they were when God gave
them to me. I am the helpless prey of suspicion, and the guiltless
victim of the law. O, my judges! I do not crave your mercy--that is the
despairing prayer of conscious guilt; I demand at your hands, justice."
The rushing sound as of a coming flood filled her ears, and her words
echoed vaguely from some immeasurably distant height. The gaslights
seemed whirling in a Walpurgis maze, as she sat down and once more
veiled her face in her hands.
When she recovered sufficiently to listen, Mr. Churchill had risen for
the closing speech of the prosecution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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