as cleared, and we awaited the sentence in
the adjoining room.

The peasant and his family sat in a corner apart, sad, sorry, and
comfortless, with no friend to speak a consoling word, while the count
was surrounded by a courtly throng, who assured him that with such a case
he could not possibly lose; but that if the judges did deliver judgment
against him he should pay the peasant, and force him to prove the alleged
forgery.

I listened in profound silence, sympathising with the countryman rather
than my host, whom I believed to be a thorough-paced scoundrel, though I
took care not to say so.

Count Torres, who was a deadly foe to all prudence and discretion, asked
me my opinion of the case, and I whispered that I thought the count
should lose, even if he were in the right, on account of the infamous
apostrophes of his counsel, who deserved to have his ears cut off or to
stand in the pillory for six months.

"And the client too," said Tomes aloud; but nobody had heard what I had
said.

After we had waited for an hour the clerk of the court came in with two
papers, one of which he gave to the peasant's counsel and the other to
Torriano's. Torriano read it to himself, burst into a loud laugh, and
then read it aloud.

The court condemned the count to recognize the peasant as his creditor,
to pay all costs, and to give him a year's wages as damages; the
peasant's right to appeal ad minimum on account of any other complaints
he might have being reserved.

The advocate looked downcast, but Torriano consoled him by a fee of six
sequins, and everybody went away.

I remained with the defendant, and asked him if he meant to appeal to
Vienna.

"I shall appeal in another sort," said he; but I did not ask him what he
meant.

We left Gorice the next morning.

My landlord gave me the bill, and told me he had received instructions
not to insist on my paying it if I made any difficulty, as in that case
the count would pay himself.

This struck me as somewhat eccentric, but I only laughed. However, the
specimens I had seen of his character made me imagine that I was going to
spend six weeks with a dangerous original.

In two hours we were at Spessa, and alighted at a large house, with
nothing distinguished about it from an architectural point of view. We
went up to the count's room, which was tolerably furnished, and after
shewing me over the house he took me to my own room. It was on the ground
floor, stuffy, dark, a