"Pardon me, general," interrupted one of my judges, "but I should like the prisoner to give a direct answer--yes or no--to the question. It is a simple matter. Did he or did he not, in October of 1848, attend a meeting of the Hungarian Committee?"
"If you will not allow me to explain, I shall refuse to answer at all," I exclaimed.
"Then," said the man who had spoken, "we shall be forced to draw our own conclusions;" and he sat down very red, but triumphant, amid a hum of approval.
"There is one other matter on which you might like to say a word," remarked the president blandly, "and that is the doing to death of the trooper Ober."
To this I replied that the unfortunate man had not met his death at my hands, nor was I in any way responsible for the striking of the fatal blow.
Here again I was confronted by further proof of how finely my enemy had woven the meshes of my net.
According to the sworn evidence of the man Franz, he had seen the knife in my hand, and he had also seen me stab the hapless trooper to the heart.
On the evidence supplied to them my judges could so easily find me guilty of almost any crime that I took little interest in the rest of the proceedings.
Von Theyer had made such a skilful blend of fact and fiction that his story had all the appearance of unadulterated truth. On one point alone he had not fulfilled his threat; there was no allusion to the ring and miniature of the dead baron.
I believe the president did mention vaguely some other charges, but as I could not be shot or hung twice over, these did not much matter.