"We will grant you eight days more to reflect," replied the judge in the red robe, who had previously spoken. "But you must, in the first place, bind yourself on your honor, to make no attempt to discover where you are, and who are the persons you see here. You must promise not to pass beyond the enclosure, even should you see the gates open, and the spectres of your dearest friends calling on you. You must ask no questions of the persons who serve you, nor of any one who may come clandestinely to you."
"So be it," said Consuelo eagerly. "I promise as you desire, to see no one without your authority, and ask pardon humbly."
"You have no pardon to ask—no questions to propound. All the necessities both of your body and soul have been foreseen for the whole time you remain here. If you regret any friend, any relation, any servants, you are free to go. Solitude, or such association as we determine on, will be your lot here."
"I ask nothing for myself. I have heard, however, that one of your friends, disciples, or servants, (for I know not his rank) suffers a severe punishment on my account. I am here to accuse myself of the offence imputed to him, and on that account I asked to appear before you."
"Do you offer to make a detailed and sincere confession?"
"If such be required to secure his acquittal; though to a woman it is a severe moral torture to confess herself to eight men."
"Spare yourself this humiliation. We would have no assurance that you are sincere, inasmuch as we have no right over you. All you have said and thought during the last hour to us will be as a dream. Remember that hereafter we have the right to sound the secrets of your heart. Keep it always so pure, that you can unveil it without suffering and without shame."
"Your generosity is delicate and paternal. But I am not the only person interested. Another expiates my offence. Can I not justify him?"
"That does not concern you. If there be one among us guilty, he will exculpate himself, not by vain assertions and allegations, but by acts of courage, devotion, and virtue. If his soul has quailed, we will lift him up, and aid him to overcome himself. You speak of severe punishment. We inflict none but moral penalties. Whoever he be, he is our equal—our brother. Here there are neither masters nor servants, subjects nor princes. False rumors have deceived you, no doubt. Go in peace and sin no more."
At this last word the examiner rang a bell, and the men in black masks and with naked swords returned. Replacing the hood on Consuelo's head, they returned her to the house she had left, by the route they had brought her from it.