endidly without; even the
advocate for the Crown had declared himself on the side of the
accused.

The room fills, and the court is sitting again.

An interesting comedy to watch in a little town. The warning gravity
of the advocate for the Crown, the emotional eloquence of the advocate
for the defence. The court sat listening to what appeared to be its
duty in regard to the case of a girl named Barbro, and the death of
her child.

For all that, it was no light matter after all to decide. The advocate
for the Crown was a presentable man to look at, and doubtless also a
man of heart, but something appeared to have annoyed him recently or
possibly he had suddenly remembered that he held a certain office
in the State and was bound to act from that point of view. An
incomprehensible thing, but he was plainly less disposed to be lenient
now than he had been during the morning; if the crime had been
committed, he said, it was a serious matter, and things would look
black indeed if they could with certainty be declared so black as
would appear from the testimony of the witnesses already heard. That
was a matter for the court to decide. He wished to draw attention to
three points: firstly, whether they had before them a concealment of
birth; whether this was clear to the court. He made some personal
remarks on this head. The second point was the wrapping, the piece of
a shirt--why had the accused taken this with her? Was it in order to
make use of it for a certain purpose preconceived? He developed this
suggestion further. His third point was the hurried and suspicious
burial, without any notification of the death to either priest or
Lensmand. Here, the man was the person chiefly responsible, and it
was of the utmost importance that the court should come to the right
conclusion in that respect. For it was obvious that if the man were an
accomplice, and had therefore undertaken the burial himself, then
his servant-girl must have committed a crime before he could be an
accomplice in it.

"H'm," from some one in court.

Axel Stroem felt himself again in danger. He looked up without meeting
a single glance; all eyes were fixed on the advocate speaking. But far
down in the court sat Geissler again, looking highly supercilious, as
if bursting with his own superiority, his under-lip thrust forward,
his face turned towards the ceiling. This enormous indifference to the
solemnity of the court, and that "H'm," uttered loudly and w