"I must have done."
"You've never seen her before?"
"Never."
Van Spreckdal got to his feet as if indignant, then, sitting down again, appeared to consult in a low voice with his fellow judge.
Those two dark profiles, silhouetted against the light-filled backdrop of the window, the three men standing behind me…the silence in the amphitheatre…all these things made me shudder.
"What have they got against me? What have I done?" I muttered to myself.
Suddenly Van Spreckdal said to my guards:
"Take the prisoner back to the carriage. We're leaving for the
Metzgerstrasse."
Then he addressed me directly:
"Christian Venius," he cried, "the situation that you find yourself in is most regrettable…Pull yourself together and consider that if human justice is unbending…you can still seek the pardon of a merciful God…You can even merit it by confessing your crime!"