e no judge. I, a woman,
wife, and mother, was in my own native town, before the people
accustomed to treat me with respect, dragged into a square of soldiers,
and there scourged with rods. Look, I can write this without dropping
dead! But my husband killed himself. Robbed of all other weapons, he
shot himself with a pocket-pistol. The people rose, and would have
killed those who instigated these horrors, but their lives were saved by
the interference of the military.' Very well. Von Maderspach took his
own way; he shot himself. But if, instead of doing that, he had taken
the law into his own hands, and killed the author of such an outrage, do
you think there is a human being in the world who would have blamed
him?"

He appealed directly to Brand. Brand answered calmly, but with his face
grown rather white, "I think if such a thing were done to--to my wife, I
would have a shot at somebody."

Perhaps Lind thought that it was the recital of the wrongs of Madame von
Maderspach that had made this man's face grow white, and given him that
look about the mouth; but at all events he continued, "Exactly so. I was
only seeking to show you that there are occasions on which a man might
justly take the law into his own hands. Well, then, some would argue--I
don't say so myself, but some would say--that what a man may do justly
an association may do justly. What would the quick-spreading
civilization of America have done but for the Lynch tribunals? The
respectable people said to themselves, 'it is question of life or
death. We have to attack those scoundrels at once, or society will be
destroyed. We cannot wait for the law: it is powerless.' And so when the
president had given his decision, out they went and caught the
scoundrels, and strung them up to the nearest tree. You do not call them
murderers. John Lynch ought to have a statue in every Western State in
America."

"Certainly, certainly!" exclaimed Reitzei, reaching over and filling out
another glass of brandy with an unsteady hand. He was usually an
exceedingly temperate person. "We are all agreed. Justice must be done,
whether the law allows or not; I say the quicker the better."

Lind paid no heed to him, but proceeded quietly, "Now I will come more
directly to what is required of us by the Council; I have been trying to
guess at their view of the question; perhaps I am altogether wrong; but
no matter. And I will ask you to imagine yourselves not here in this
free coun