"Does your honour require anything else ?" With those mocking words he left the cell and raged and cursed all along the corridor.

The prisoners thought he was cursing them.
The judge, his hands behind his back, walked up and down his large study.

What a cursed critical case! If the Chancellor had not been given up by the doctors on the day of the trial, the sentence would have been different.

The petition for mercy! Would it have any result except that of prolonging the poor man's torture?
Whether in the end it would not have been better----?
Everything would have been over then.

An old official came out of the adjoining room and laid a bundle of papers on the table.
"One moment.