upon me some sort of reparation. If you demand that I should
kill myself, I will do it; if you enjoin banishment, I will go away; if
you require the half of my property, which is far more than I have ever
acquired from the negroes, my fellow-men, as they are called, I will
resign it. I thank you, and await your verdict on the appointed day."

He retired, and left the men by themselves.

Clodwig whispered to Eric,--

"Cain slew his brother: the Cain of today sells his brother."

CHAPTER IX.

CONSULTATION OF THE MEN, AND A WOMAN'S VERDICT.

Who could describe the various changes of expression in the features of
the judges during Sonnenkamp's speech!

After he had retired, they sat together in silence.

Weidmann looked bright and unmoved: his clear blue eye was calm, and
he seemed surprised by nothing he had heard.

The Major was busy with an internal struggle, passing, in review before
him, his neglected youth. He often struck his breast with his clenched
hand, thinking to himself,--

"Yes, who knows but that you might have become just like this!"

And he was overpowered by the emotion caused by considering his own
case, and that of the man who had spoken so defiantly. He wanted to
keep from shedding tears, but did not succeed. He wiped off the
perspiration from his face with his handkerchief, and at the same time
got rid of the tears. He longed to go to the poor rich man, embrace
him, and call out to him, "Brother, brother, you have been a very bad
brother; but now you are going to be a good brother: you will be?" But
he did not venture to give way to the impulse of his heart. He looked
round, to see whether any one would begin; but no glance was directed
towards him, except the kindly one of Professor Einsiedel, to whom the
Major nodded, as if he would say,--

"Yes, in all your books, you have never seen any thing like this. It is
horrible, that a man can think and do all this; but I pity him from the
bottom of my heart, and you pity him too: I see you do."

The Doctor was the first to speak aloud, and he said to Clodwig,--

"We have been, without meaning it, the listeners to a comic
performance. A simple-minded transgressor, a transgressor from the
impulse of passion, can, perhaps, be converted; a cunning and hardened
one, never."

"With all my detestation," replied Clodwig, "I admire this power, which
can so lay bare the hypocrisy of the world. Oh,"--