My desire"-- his voice suddenly quickened--"my desire is plainly and simply to state my case.
"Morally I have done you no wrong.

My teaching has been the expounding of simple truths, that my personal action could not desecrate.

I stand before you to-night empty-handed as I came.

The one thing I claim from you is judgment! "Judge me! I am in your hands.

If you think I deserve punishment, punish me! If you think circumstances have made me what I am, then stand aside! Let me pass out of your lives!" There was a great silence; then a woman's sharp cry rang out across the chapel, as, with a savage movement, three of the Arch-Mystics sprang upon the Prophet.
"Sacrilege! Sacrilege!" Bale-Corphew's voice rose loud and violent.
But he had calculated without his host.