"Nor I! I am sure it's a trick of Catspaw's; and it tricks me out of my reputation, name, and peace of mind."
"Do not say so!" cried Lady Kishlaki. "Who will dare to attack your reputation?"
"Who? Everybody! Perhaps Völgyeshy is right. On consideration, it strikes me that the protocol was irregular; and if so, who's to be blamed for it? I, the president of the court. But I wouldn't mind that! I would not mind it in the least, if they called me a dunce, and a cullion, and a zany, and what not—but to step from my door, and to see the wretched man hanging on my own ground, whom I might have saved, and to think of his wife and his children, how they clasped my knees, and begged for his life—oh, I'm undone!"
"Nonsense!" said Kalman, who entered the room at that moment. "It's in your power to release Viola."
"Impossible!" cried Kishlaki; "and still the subject is too serious for jokes. But it's impossible."
"There's a legal impossibility, if you like," replied the young man; "for in law, I take it, it is thought impossible for two witnesses to tell lies, though one witness may, and for a judge to be a party against the culprit. But, thank heaven! there are other expedients."
"No appeal is possible from a court-martial," sighed Kishlaki.
"But still there is an appeal, and we'll make it. It's an appeal to the future!"
"What does he say? I cannot understand it," said the old man.
"But I do!" cried Lady Kishlaki. "You have planned his escape, have you not?"