What more would you have?
Would you extort from me a statement of my motives?
Have you failed to discover them already?
You charge me with malice; but your eyes are not shut; your reason is still vigorous; your memory has not forsaken you.

You know whom it is that you thus charge.

The habits of his life are known to you; his treatment of his wife and his offspring is known to you; the soundness of his integrity, and the unchangeableness of his principles, are familiar to your apprehension; yet you persist in this charge! You lead me hither manacled as a felon; you deem me worthy of a vile and tormenting death! "Who are they whom I have devoted to death?
My wife--the little ones, that drew their being from me--that creature who, as she surpassed them in excellence, claimed a larger affection than those whom natural affinities bound to my heart.

Think ye that malice could have urged me to this deed?
Hide your audacious fronts from the scrutiny of heaven.
Take refuge in some cavern unvisited by human eyes.

Ye may deplore your wickedness or folly, but ye cannot expiate it.
"Think not that I speak for your sakes.