my fault. I had found myself hitherto the object of so much attention
and praise, that I had developed a strong sense of complacency and
self-satisfaction. I had an uncomfortable suspicion that there was even
more behind, but I could not, by interrogating my mind and searching out
my spirits, make out clearly what it was; yet I felt I was having a
sharp lesson; and this made me resolve that I would ask for no kind of
assistance from Amroth or any other power, but that I would try to meet
whatever fell upon me with patience, and extract the full savour of my
experience.

I do not know how long I spent in the dismal cell. I was in some
discomfort from the handling I had received, and in still greater
dejection of mind. Suddenly I heard footsteps approaching. Three of my
captors appeared, and told me roughly to go with them. So, a pitiable
figure, I limped along between two of them, the third following behind,
and was conducted through the central piazza of the place, between two
lines of people who gave way to the most undisguised merriment, and even
shouted opprobrious remarks at me, calling me spy and traitor and other
unpleasant names. I could not have believed that these kind-mannered and
courteous persons could have exhibited, all of a sudden, such frank
brutality, and I saw many of my own acquaintance among them, who
regarded me with obvious derision.

I was taken into a big hall, in which I had often sat to hear a concert
of music. On the dais at the upper end were seated a number of dignified
persons, in a semicircle, with a very handsome and stately old man in
the centre on a chair of state, whose face was new to me. Before this
Court I was formally arraigned; I had to stand alone in the middle of
the floor, in an open space. Two of my captors stood on each side of me;
while the rest of the court was densely packed with people, who greeted
me with obvious hostility.

When silence was procured, the President said to me, with a show of
great courtesy, that he could not disguise from himself that the charge
against me was a serious one; but that justice would be done to me,
fully and carefully. I should have ample opportunity to excuse myself.
He then called upon one of those who sat with him to state the case
briefly, and call witnesses and after that he promised I might speak for
myself.

A man rose from one of the seats, and, pleading somewhat rhetorically,
said that the object of the great community, to whi