VI—THE GUILTY MAN—AND JUSTICE
My friend ceased speaking for a moment, and I felt a prickling and tingling all over me. It was emotion and uneasiness both in one.
I looked at him. His eyes had suddenly become bright and clear, and there was a smile about his narrow lips of mingled sadness and joy.
I will not tell you anything more about it. I will not go further into what happened. I will only add that half an hour later that man was no longer among the living.
We shot him.
Was it honourable and just? Is it never permissible to shoot a prisoner? Perhaps—perhaps not. I don't wish to dispute about it with anybody. In this case that question does not interest me in the least. I don't care whether it was lawful or not.
I will only honestly and openly declare that to me this little incident stands out, amongst all the appalling things I saw, as something infinitely beautiful and exalted.
I felt that at that moment I had seen cold, stern Justice face to face.