Uditors caught each syllable that issued from his lips, as if interest in his innocence were still stronger than curiosity. "I have told you, father," he continued, "that a false accusation of having wronged the customs brought my unhappy parent under the Senate's displeasure, and that he was many years an innocent inhabitant of one of these accursed cells, while we believed him in exile among the islands. At length we succeeded in getting such proof before the Council, as ought to have satisfied the patricians of their own injustice. I am afraid that when men pretend that the chosen of the earth exercise authority, they are not ready to admit their errors, for it would be proof against the merit of their system. The Council delayed a weary time to do us justice--so long, that my poor mother sank under her sufferings. My sister, a girl of Gelsomina's years, followed her soon--for the only
