“It’s a woman, then?” exclaimed Jack, startled; but further words were prevented by the sounding of another signal by the trumpeters.
The silvery cadences filled the great oval cup with stately melody, and floated lingeringly away in the upper air.
“Look!” whispered Argon.
Beginning at either end of the arc of eleven thrones, the judges were, one after one, revealed in their places. Composed and serious they were as graven images of justice; but of a justice in which mercy bore an equal part. There was neither severity nor indifference in the expression of their countenances, but a meditative sadness, as if each were searching his own heart to detect there some trace of mortal frailty which should admonish him of his brotherhood with the most sinful.
The central figure, immediately below the higher throne, was Aunion. There was an expectant hush, and, like the slow dawning of a white light, the gracious form of Lamara appeared in her station above. Immediately the whole body of the audience rose in its places, and all silently lifted their right hands. She responded with a gesture of the arm, full of gentle majesty, which seemed to invoke love upon all.
The high court was open. Aunion was the first to speak.
“We are met,” he said, “to hear the cause of one of us who has been charged with betraying a trust. The accused is a woman—young, as we measure age, and therefore to be thought of with the tenderness and indulgence which the inexperience of youth and the impulsiveness of girlhood may claim, and yet removed far enough from childhood to have lost something of the divine innocence and wisdom which children bring with them from the source of good. Had she been further advanced in the practise of self-government, we may believe that she would not stand accountant for this sin. It is likewise to be urged in her behalf that there flows in her veins blood of another strain than ours, which, even after the lapse of some ages, may abate her strength when and where it were most needed.”
“On the other hand,” he went on, “you are to know that the accused has been brought up in a position of exceptional advantage; she has been loved by our highest, and been admitted to the inner degrees of illumination. Moreover, her attempt was leveled not against one of ourselves, but against one of a race unfamiliar with our customs, and perhaps supplied with means less adequate than ours to offer resistance. The attempt failed, and you are to consider whether this fact relieves the accused in any degree from the odium of her purpose.
“To make an end, I say, that if any here can find nothing in his memory of his own secret life that would prompt him to show mercy to this girl, let him withdraw from our assembly, for that person is either more or less than human, and therefore not qualified to judge.”
He ceased, and Lamara said: “Let the accused appear!” At the word the chair, hitherto the only one vacant in the amphitheater, was occupied by a slender figure, crouched forward, whose long golden hair, drawn before her face by her hands, confirmed the painful anticipation which Jack had already formed. After a moment the hands fell, and the face of Zarga was revealed. Jack was about to utter some protest, but Argon restrained him.