"Theodore Wieland, the prisoner at the bar, was now called upon for his defence.

He looked around him for some time in silence, and with a mild countenance.

At length he spoke: "It is strange; I am known to my judges and my auditors.

Who is there present a stranger to the character of Wieland?
who knows him not as an husband--as a father--as a friend?
yet here am I arraigned as criminal.
I am charged with diabolical malice; I am accused of the murder of my wife and my children! "It is true, they were slain by me; they all perished by my hand.
The task of vindication is ignoble.

What is it that I am called to vindicate?
and before whom?
"You know that they are dead, and that they were killed by me.