French fiction -- Translations into English; Short stories, French -- Translations into English
But the holy man said:
"You are for milking the cow that has given all her milk, and would
learn of me more than I know."
However the Judge imposed silence on the holy man, and he said:
"Your tongue has discharged the arrow of your discourse, and its shot
was aimed at the Republic. Only it has lighted lower, and turned back
upon yourself."
And the holy man said:
"You judge me, not by my acts and my words, which are manifest, but by
my motives, which are visible only to God's eye."
And the Judge replied:
"Nay! if we could not see the invisible and were not gods upon earth,
how would it be possible for us to judge folk? Do you not know a law
has just been passed in Viterbo, which punishes even men's secret
thoughts? For the police of cities is for ever being perfected, and the
wise Ulpian, who held the rule and the square in the days of Cæsar,
would be astonished himself, if he could see our rules and squares,
improved as they are."
And the Judge said again:
"Giovanni, you have been conspiring in your prison against the common
weal."
But the holy man denied having ever conspired against the weal of
Viterbo. Then the Judge said:
"The gaoler has given testimony against you."
And the holy man asked the Judge:
"What weight will my testimony have in one scale, when that of the
gaoler is in the other?"
The Judge answered:
"Why! yours will kick the beam."
Wherefore the holy man held his peace henceforth.
Then the Judge declared:
"Anon you were talking, and the words you said proved your perfidy. Now
you say nothing, and your silence is the avowal of your crime. So you
have confessed your guilt twice over."
And the Magistrate they entitled the Accuser rose and said:
"The illustrious city of Viterbo speaks by my voice, and my voice shall
be grave and calm, because it is the public voice. And you will think
you are listening to a bronze statue speaking, for I make accusation not
with my heart and bowels, but with the tables of bronze whereon the Law
is inscribed."
And straightway he began to gesticulate furiously and utter a raging
torrent of words. And he declaimed the argument of a play, in imitation
of Seneca the Tragedian: and this drama was filled full of crimes
committed by the holy man Giovanni. And the Accuser represented in
succession all the characters of the tragedy. He mimicked the groans of
the victims and the voice of Giovanni, the better to strike awe into his
audience, who seemed to hear and see Giovanni himself, intoxicated with
hate and evildoing. And the Accuser tore his hair and rent his gown and
fell back exhausted on his august seat of office.
And the Judge who had questioned the accused before took up the word
again and said:
"It is meet a citizen defend this man. For none, so says the law of
Viterbo, may be condemned without having been first defended."
Thereupon an Advocate of Viterbo got up on a stool and spoke in these
terms:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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