The Mother looked down.
"Wonderful and ever new, how the man can speak of such acts!" she thought.
Sonnenkamp felt what the lady thought of him, and exclaimed,—
"Look me in the face! Yes, noble lady, you hindered the execution of my purpose."
"I?"
"Yes, you; for, thinking better of it, I said to myself that I would tell you all, gazing at your open face, and that you had the power to absolve and to blot out; but no, you, too, have it not."
The Professorin breathed more freely.
Sonnenkamp continued,—
"You once let fall the word—I know not whether you spoke it or I—but it was uttered, and so it stands. 'In the new world, where the laws are not yet so firmly established, they summon a jury of neighbors.' I wish to summon a jury of free men, before whom I will stand openly. They shall judge me freely. I wish to unite trial by jury with confession, and I vow to fulfil what these men shall enjoin upon me as a means of expiation. Having returned to Europe, I owe the European world either a deed of atonement, or else the endeavor to convert it. Do you comprehend my meaning?"
"Perfectly. Here must be something redeeming, in submission to the verdict of an assemblage of free men."