This speech made a profound sensation, and was greeted with a thunder of applause from the surrounding multitude, as the aged councillor bowed low and returned to his seat. Clearly, popular opinion was on his side, and we feared that our doom was sealed. Graham alone felt relieved when the speech was done, for to his great, though secret joy, Volinè's name had not been mentioned, and evidently the King and his councillors were in ignorance of his love for her, and the untoward occurrence in the garden. His rival had not dared to do as he had threatened, after all. "Now, strangers from Ramos," said the King, "have you aught to say to vindicate yourselves? No man shall be judged unfairly, or condemned unheard. Speak, so that we may know your history, and learn if there be aught to swing the balance of Justice in your favour. Kaosp hath informed me that you are now able to converse in our tongue, and therefore to understand the charges that have been laid against you." Hereupon Doctor Hermann, with note-book in hand, stepped forward, amidst a breathless silence, and said:-- "King of Gathma, and citizens of Edos, I and my companions appear before you under circumstances which place us, unfortunately, at a great disadvantage. We came to visit your world, bearing tidings of Peace, and bringing news of your brothers out yonder on the star Ramos, hoping to return to them in due season as messengers of your goodwill, and partakers of your hospitality and kindness. But evil fortune overtook us as soon as we descended upon your soil, and to our everlasting regret our first intercourse with your people has ended fatally for one of your subjects. Believe it or not, O King, but this husbandman, whom you call Osa, threatened us with a deadly weapon, with which he had already slain some beast to intimidate us and to prove his prowess, and we purely in self-defence drew our firearms and struck him dead. We came here to Gathma only as explorers and men of science, in quest of knowledge. We have no desire to slay your people nor to work them harm; of magic we know nothing; we are flesh and blood as yourselves--seekers after truth, who have braved the perils of a frightful voyage across the realms of space, with no other motive than to extend the philosophy of Man. My life has been spent in solving the secrets that barred Man's way across the noble pathway of the planets; my companions have assisted me by their labour, and by their riches, to make that attempt which we thought we had crowned with such brilliant success. For more than two long years have we sped onwards and onwards across the silent sky, threatened by dangers so awful, that we recall them even now with horror. And yet we find enemies in this new world, instead of friends; our bodies are weary and fain would rest, yet we only meet with strife; and we are condemned to die the most horrible of deaths because we did what any of you, placed as we were, would have done in self-defence.