THE MAIDENS OF THE ROCKS.
THE INTRUDER.[*]
[*] In the original Italian, this novel is entitled "L'Innocente."
Should I go before the judge and say: "I have committed a crime. He would not be dead if I had not killed him. It is I, Tullio Hermil, who am his assassin. I premeditated that assassination in my house. I committed it with perfect lucidity of conscience, methodically, in all security. And I have gone on living in my house with my secret for a whole year, until to-day. To-day is the anniversary I deliver myself into your hands. Listen to me, judge me."
Can I go before the judge? Can I speak to him like that?
I cannot, and I will not. The justice of men does not reach as far as me. There is no tribunal on earth competent to judge me.
And yet I feel a desire to accuse myself, to confess. I feel a desire to reveal my secret to someone.
TO WHOM?
My first recollection is as follows:
It was in April. For several days, during the festivities of the Pentecost, Juliana and I and our two little daughters, Maria and Natalia, had been in the country, at my mother's house, a roomy old place known as the Badiola. It was the seventh year of our marriage.